Author 



^i.''*^^ 







ILM 



Title 



Imprint 



16—47372-3 GPO 







^ 



."he Use of Psychological Tests in the 
Educational and Vocational Guid- 
ance of High School Pupils 



Being an Abstract of 
A THESIS 



PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND THE COMMITTEE 

ON GRADUATE STUDY OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL 

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQIHREMENTS FOR THE 



Degree of 
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

BY 

WILLIAM MARTIN PROCTOR 



The Use of Psychological Tests in the 
Educational and Vocational Guid- 
ance of High School Pupils 



Being an Abstract of 
A THESIS 



PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND THE COMMITTEE 

ON GRADUATE STUDY OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL 

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 



Degree of 
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

BY 

WILLIAM MARTIN PROCTOR 



Approved by Edward Curtis Pranklin 

For the Committee on Graduate Study 

And Ellwood Patterson Cubberley 

For the Department of Education 
Dated the 15 day of April, 1919. 



V^w^^ 



.91 



Copyright 1921 by 

Public School Publishing Ca 

Bloomington, Illinois 



Urdvareity 
OCT ^x tSit 



CONTENTS 
Chapter Page 

Editor's Introduction 1 

I. Introduction 6 

II. Psychological Tests as a Means of Measuring the Probable School 

Success of High-School Pupils 10 

III. Use of Psychological Tests in the Educational Guidance of High- 
School Pupils 23 

IV. Use of Psychological Tests in the Vocational Guidance of High- 
School Pupils 37 

V. Psychological Tests and College Entrance 51 

Appendix 65 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

When Professor Terman's book on The Intelligence of School 
Children appeared, it became evident that Leland Stanford 
Junior University was the center of a surprisingly extensive inves- 
tigation of human mentality. It was clear that records were 
being made, not once, but repeatedly, with reference to the same 
children and that many of these children were being kept under 
observation throughout their school careers and even beyond. 
In other words, the common curse of our educational inquiries, 
in virtue of which nothing is studied hard enough and long enough 
to reach fundamental results, seemed to have been lifted from the 
eflforts of the' Stanford group of men and women. 

One of the members of the Stanford group is Dr. William M, 
Proctor, the author of this book. He has given particular atten- 
tion to high-school pupils and to underclassmen in college and it is 
to these groups that he has applied his tests. 

These tests are for the most part such as may be given to 
large numbers of persons simultaneously. Instruments of this 
kind have been appropriately called group tests, in contradistinc- 
tion to the individual or interview tests in the use of which one 
examiner handles only one person at a time. The history of the 
development of these group tests to their present status has been 
sketched in a number of places. It is generally and correctly 
understood that the prototype of all the present group intelligence 
tests is the collection of examinations loosely termed the Army 
Tests. 

From the Army Tests, either in direct descent or by collateral 
branches, has sprung a large progeny in the form of group intelli- 
gence scales or tests. The use of these tests has already become 
enormous. To a certain extent the persons who have devised 
them have become victims of this popularity. When the school 
people will buy and use these tests by the millions, there is a 
temptation for authors to rush them into print without sufficient 
preliminary analysis and without extensive trial in practical 
situations. 



2 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

Of course, this is only a temporary condition. Out of the com- 
petition among different tests and the trials of two or more of 
them on the same individuals will come a critical literature which 
will surely bring untrustworthy instruments into disrepute. This 
sort of literature is only just now coming through. The develop- 
ment of group intelligence tests has been so rapid that books on 
their use have not had time to appear. Magazine articles involv- 
ing the use of one or two of them have been published. Dr. 
Holley's monograph on the use of mental tests appeared during 
the past autumn. The present book is another of much the same 
sort. It deals with the Binet Scale, the Army Examinations 
a and b, and the Army Alpha Test. 

But Dr. Proctor's book, although incidentally concerned with 
the validity of the different scales, is primarily devoted to the 
practical uses to which the results of intelligence testing may be 
put. For example, upon testing the same pupils after an interval 
of two and a half years. Dr. Proctor is especially interested in the 
fact that "the person who made the original tests . . . would 
have been in a position to give very helpful advice to all of the 
pupils tested by him; also that his predictions as to the possible 
educational future of each of these pupils would have deserved 
serious consideration by parents and teachers." Again, when it 
becomes possible to compare the success in high school of two 
groups of pupils of which one has received guidance on the basis 
in part of intelligence testing while the other has received no such 
guidance, Dr. Proctor is especially interested in this practical 
demonstration. About a third of the unguided pupils, but only 
one-fifth of the guided pupils, failed in one subject. None of the 
pupils who had received the benefit of guidance failed in two or 
more subjects, while rather more than one in ten of the unguided 
pupils failed to that extent. 

In other directions his interest in the practical use of intelli- 
gence tests leads him into the field of vocational guidance. Here 
he makes good use of the work of the army psychologists by which 
the intelligence of recruits belonging to different occupations was 
revealed. These he relates to the occupational preferences which 
he obtained from over nine hundred high-school pupils. The 
lowest intelligence score made by the middle 50 percent of pro- 
fessional workers among the Army recruits was 98. On the other 



Editor's Introduction 3 

hand, 50 of the high-school pupils who expressed their intention of 
becoming professional workers scored less than 90. Again, he 
points out the fact that over 60 percent of the high-school pupils 
aspired to join the ranks of the professional class while, according 
to the United States census, less than 5 percent of the gainful 
workers of the country belong to that class. Dj". Proctor, there- 
fore, although not neglecting the theoretical and scientijac aspects 
of his subject, gives particular attention to the practical bearings 
of it. Indeed, we should say that his monograph is a good example 
of a method of treatment, which, while it is competent from the 
point of view of research workers, is also of special interest to pub- 
lic school workers. 

With respect to vocational guidance Dr. Proctor's material 
supports his view that those who seek a ready means of determin- 
ing whether pupils should be telephone operators or photographers, 
bakers or blacksmiths, farm workers or barbers, are likely to 
be disappointed. Nothing in our general intelligence tests will 
enable us to be specific to this degree. If, however, occupations 
are divided into five or six general classes, the data at hand 
regarding the range of intelligence among people belonging to 
these classes are such as to permit us to say something definite 
concerning the class of work in which a given pupil may, so far as 
intelligence is concerned, be successful. Perhaps even here we 
can say with greater certainty what the class of occupations is 
in which the pupil will not be successful. For example, if a pupil's 
intelligence quotient is 90, we can be sure that his intelligence 
is not sufificient for professional work but that he may (if other 
conditions are favorable) successfully pursue some occupation 
belonging to the class of skilled labor. Whether that occupation 
shall be that of a bricklayer or a painter, a plumber or a car- 
penter, cannot be determined on the basis of intelligence. Such 
a determination will depend upon individual aptitude, prefer- 
ences, and opportunities. In other words, we may with some 
safety advise pupils as to classes of occupations, but we cannot 
assume — at least on the basis of general intelligence — to advise 
them with respect to particular occupations within the occupa- 
tional classes. 

Those, therefore, who are looking to the intelligence test to 
determine whether a boy should be a bookkeeper or a telegrapher 



4 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

may as well know at the outset that these tests offer no basis for 
such determinations. This comes about from the very simple 
fact that the same degree of general intelligence is required and 
is now being exhibited by both bookkeepers and telegraphers. 
In other words, the difference between the quaHfications for 
workers of these two sorts is not intellectual in the general sense. 
Perhaps we shall subsequently develop trade and occupational 
tests which will differentiate more sharply than is now possible 
between the aptitudes pertaining to occupations in the same class. 
Indeed, we can already mark out in a general way the lines along 
which such investigation will proceed. There will be, in the 
first place — to stick to our bookkeeper and telegrapher — an 
analysis of the bookkeeper's job and the telegrapher's job for the 
purpose of finding out what these workers have to do. From 
these data some inferences may be made as to the specific abilities 
required in learning and performing the operations incident to 
the occupation. Having determined these abilities, or the most 
important of them, tests may perhaps be devised for measuring 
such abilities. Many trials of these tests and a checking of the 
results obtained from them against the ultimate success of persons 
who have become bookkeepers and telegraphers will be required 
in order to refine the tests to the point where they will be valid 
instruments. Meanwhile, one ought to point out that trade tests 
are quite different from guidance tests. For example, we have 
certain trade tests which have been developed in the army. We 
also have tests for clerks and stenographers. But all these tests 
are given to determine the ability of persons already belonging 
to the occupation or claiming to belong to it. A test to determine 
whether a person, prior to studying about an occupation or 
entering upon it, has the ability to pursue it successfully is quite 
another matter. 

Dr. Proctor's chapter on the application of the Army Tests to 
freshmen upon entrance to college is especially interesting. It is 
worth noting how the different educational levels correspond to 
different intelHgence levels. Dr. Proctor found, for example, 
that, expressed in terms of the intelligence quotient, the typical 
first-year high-school pupil has a mentality of 105. Three or 
four years later, when elimination throughout the high school has 
had its effect, the typical intelligence of high-school graduates 



Editor's Introduction S 

has gone up 6 points — namely, to 111. If the reader will recall 
Professor Terman's classification of intelligence quotients, he 
will observe that this means that more than half of the high-school 
graduates belong in the classification called "superior" or in a 
higher classification. Between graduation from high school and 
entering college another sharp elimination apparently takes place 
in virtue of which the mentality of typical students now moves 
up 4 points so that the median intelligence quotient for students 
entering college is 115. As Dr. Proctor points out, if the same 
process of selection takes place in college as in high school, "we 
should expect the median intelligence quotient of college graduates 
to be 120 or over." This means that students of no more than 
average intelligence will be likely to be eliminated from college 
before the senior year. 

In conclusion, we should like to point out that Dr. Proctor 
makes no inordinate claims for the intelligence test. Some of 
the results — particularly the correspondences between intelligence 
scores and teachers' estimates and between intelligence scores 
and official ratings — would be higher if better tests had been at 
his disposal. The Army Alpha Test was not intended for high- 
school or college students. On this ground, and also because it 
was a pioneer and is capable of improvement, it is to be expected 
that future workers will secure even more significant correspond- 
ences than Dr. Proctor found. But whether this is true or not, 
the spirit of the author would no doubt remain the same — the 
spirit of scientific conservatism which refuses (to use his own 
words) "to place undue confidence in the results of a single 
psychological examination, however thoroughly it may have been 
standardized." 

B. R. Buckingham 
January 22, 1921 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

The secondary school population of the United States has, 
since 1890, increased three times as fast as the general population. 
In the year 1915 there were 14.4 pupils of secondary grade for 
every 1,000 persons of the general population, whereas, in 1890 
there were only five. According to recent estimates there are in 
the United States 14,000 high schools caring for 1,500,000 pupils 
requiring the services of 80,000 teachers, and calHng for the 
expenditure of $75,000,000 per year for salaries and mainte- 
nance. 

The problem of administering the physical side of this vast 
educational enterprise has occupied the attention of school 
authorities to such an extent that small consideration has been 
given to the need for internal betterment. The average American 
community is willing to tax itself for material equipment. An 
imposing high-school building becomes a matter of civic pride. It 
is a good talking point in chamber of commerce literature, and can 
be shown to visitors as an index of the progressive nature of the 
community. 

Many of our city high schools are housed in buildings superior 
to those occupied by the best colleges and universities a generation 
ago. Buildings costing from $500,000 to $1,000,000 are not un- 
common; and it is perfectly safe to say that no other nation has 
begun to spend as much upon its secondary school buildings as has 
our own. 

When, however, it comes to securing more money for teachers' 
salaries, for enriching the curriculum, or other matters of internal 
improvement, the task is much more difficult. The results ob- 
tained by spending money to make a better adjustment between 
the child and the curriculum, or between the child and his future 
place in the social order, are quite intangible. It is very difficult 
to prove to the tax-paying public that money so spent will pay as- 
certainable dividends. 

Since the public is more willing to spend money on buildings 
that can be seen than on invisible internal betterments, reforms 
in our secondary schools have come very slowly. Natural con- 



Introduction 7 

servatism as well as considerations of economy have combined to 
sustain the traditional curriculum in seventy-five out of every hun- 
dred high schools. 

So long as preparation for college was the chief end and aim of 
secondary education, the narrow, college preparatory course of 
study was satisfactory. But since the high-school population now 
comes from every class of home, and since only 10 percent of those 
who enter high school ever reach college, the demand has come to 
be more and more insistent that secondary education shall prepare 
the youth of the land for citizenship and vocations. 

In the discussion of the proposed reorganization of secondary 
education large space is being given to the problem of educational 
and vocational guidance. The classical, college-preparatory, high 
school of former days had no need of educational guidance. There 
was only one course of study. It was a case of take it or leave it. 
Neither was there great need for vocational guidance. Those who 
could master the prescribed course of study were headed for the 
professions. Those who were unable to complete the course taught 
school or went back to the farm. The boy or girl in perplexity as 
to a life career could find wise and sympathetic counselors in the 
village minister, doctor, or lawyer. 

The boy or girl of the present day faces a much more complex 
situation. The fields of vocational opportunity have been greatly 
multiplied. Where formerly there were six or seven possible lines 
of life work open to the educated man or woman, there are now 
literally hundreds. Some agency must take over the task of col- 
lecting, organizing, and imparting accurate information regarding 
possible vocational opportunities to the boys and girls in our high 
schools. 

The necessary information is no longer easily accessible to the 
inquiring boy or girl. The "No Admittance Except on Business" 
sign bars them from shop and office alike. They have become 
more and more dependent upon imparted, as against first-hand, 
information concerning the qualifications necessary to success in 
the different fields of endeavor. The minister has been practically 
eliminated as a factor in vocational guidance, because the church 
reaches such a small fraction of the high-school population. A 
majority of parents have neither the disposition nor the means of 
acquiring adequate information regarding vocations to make them 



8 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

competent counselors. This means that the home is a much less 
important factor than it used to be in the vocational guidance of 
youth. 

The high school, therefore, becomes the residuary legatee of 
the church and the home in the field of educational and vocational 
guidance. Whether the high school meets its opportunity for 
service in this new direction or fails entirely to function will depend 
upon the methods of educational and vocational guidance adopted. 

The vital nature of guidance in education is well stated by 
Truman Lee Kelley:^ 

The modern idea of education is crystallizing into an effort to guide 
rather than to instruct — to answer a need rather than to cater to a curricu- 
lum. The growing recognition of the need of vocational and educational 
guidance is resulting in the establishment of bureaus endeavoring to give the 
former, and in the training of psychologists to solve the problems of the 
latter. 

Also by J. M. Brewer :2 

The development of men and women is the purpose of the school, 
and the selection of and preparation for occupations is one of the important 
features of this development. The school must therefore be organized with 
the vocational guidance of the child as one of the aims in mind. 

This monograph embodies the results of a recent study by the 
writer involving the use of psychological tests in the educational 
and vocational guidance of high-school pupils. The data gathered 
and the conclusions reached are presented in the hope that those 
interested in the advisement problem in the high school may find 
herein helpful suggestions or be stimulated to make constructive 
criticisms in the light of their own experience. 

The study was begun in the school year 1916-1917. All the 
pupils of the September and February entering classes of the Palo 
Alto Union High School were given the Stanford Revision of the 
Binet Intelligence Scale. In 1917-1918 group tests, Army Exam- 
inations a and b, and Army Alpha Test, Form 5, were given to 
more than 1,600 high-school pupils, representing nine different 
institutions. 

^KeUey, Truman Lee. Educational guidance. (Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity Contributions to Education, No. 71.) New York: Teachers College, Columbia 
University, 1914, p. 1. 

* Brewer, J. M. [The vocational- guidance movement. New York: Macmillan 
Company, 1918, p. 58. 



Introduction 9 

The high-school progress of these pupils has been noted; in- 
formation as to vocational ambition, educational plans, etc. have 
been secured; teachers have been asked to give estimates of abil- 
ity; and the school marks of those remaining in school have been 
obtained. The records made by 93 pupils who were graduated 
from high school subsequent to being given the psychological 
tests, and who entered Stanford University, have also been com- 
piled. 

The following chapters will indicate what the writer found to 
be the value of the tests as a means of predicting probable high- 
school, vocational, or university success. The word "probable" 
is used advisedly because it should be stated at the outset that the 
writer is not disposed to place undue confidence in the result of a 
single psychological examination, however thoroughly it may have 
been standardized. 

The results obtained are at least suggestive of the methods of 
procedure, in the use of psychological tests by the high-school 
principal or teacher, that will throw the most light upon the prob- 
lem of educational and vocational guidance in the high school. 



CHAPTER II 

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AS A MEANS OF MEASURING 

THE PROBABLE SCHOOL SUCCESS OF 

HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 

The validity of the Stanford-Binet Scale, when applied to 
high-school pupils, has already been discussed by the writer in 
the issues of School and Society appearing October 19, and 26, 
1918.^ In those articles it was shown that very significant cor- 
relations had been obtained between intelligence quotients,' 
(I. Q.'s), resulting from the individual tests of 107 high-school 
pupils and the school marks earned by the same pupils during the 
school year, 1916-1917; also between I. Q.'s and teachers' 
estimates of intelligence made during the same year. 

Two years and a half later there were 66 of the original 107 
high-school pupils remaining. Teachers who had known all of 
these pupils during their stay in the high school were asked to 
give estimates of their intelligence upon the same rating sheet as 
that which was used in 1916-1917. All school marks earned 
during the two and one-half years were averaged. Correlations 
were then found (a) between the I. Q.'s obtained in 1916-1917 and 
the teachers' estimates made in 1919; (b) between the average 
of all school marks earned up to April 1, 1919 and I. Q.'s obtained 
in 1916-1917; and (c) between the average school marks and 
the teachers' estimates made in 1919. Table I shows the close 
agreement between the correlations obtained in 1916-1917 and 
those found in 1919. 

Table I shows that the correlations obtained in 1918-1919, 
when the same comparisons were madt as in 1916-1917, were 

' Proctor, W. M. "The use of intelligence tests in the educational guidance of 
high-school pupils," School and Society, 8:473-78, 502-9, October, 1918. 

* The intelligence quotient is obtained by dividing the mental age by the chrono- 
logical age. Thus a twelve-year-old chronologically who tested eight years old men- 
tally would have I. Q. of 0.66, expressed for convenience "66." The I. Q. is an index 
of relative brightness. For further discussion of intelligence quotient see: Terman, 
L. M. The intelligence of school children. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.. 1919, p. 7. 

10 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



11 



TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF CORRELATIONS OBTAINED IN 1916-1917 
WITH THOSE OBTAINED IN 1918-1919* 



Year 


Correlation 

between I. Q. 

and Teacher 

Estimates 


Correlation 

between I. Q. 

and School 

Marks 


Correlation 

between School 

Marks and 

Teacher 

Estimates 


Total 

Number 

of 

Cases 


; 


2 


3 


4 


5 


1916-17 

1918-19 


0.586 + 0.043 
0.583±0.055 


0.545±0.046 
0.487 ±0.063 


0.702 ±0.033 
0.667 ±0.046 


107 

66 



* Pearson's formula^ (shorter method) was used in making all correlations. 

practically as high as those obtained in the first instance. The 
results of two and one-half years of follow-up work seem to indi- 
cate that the person who made the original tests with the Stanford- 
Binet Scale in 1916-1917, would have been in a position to give 
very helpful advice to all of the pupils tested by him; also that 
his predictions as to the possible educational future of each of 
these pupils would have deserved serious consideration by parents 
and teachers. 

As a means of discovering individual dilTerences between school 
children in order that they may be grouped in classes according 
to ability, the individual psychological test has been shown to be 
a helpful tool. From the standpoint of school administration, 
however, the individual test presents serious difficulties. The 
time required to give an individual test to a high-school pupil 
varies from 40 minutes to 120 minutes. The total number of 
pupils that can be examined by a single examiner in a day will 
seldom exceed ten. The use of the Stanford-Binet abbreviated 
scale enables an examiner to test from IS to 25 pupils in a day. 
Even so, it is impossible to use the individual method when a 
rapid survey of an entire school population is to be undertaken. 

Group mental examinations afford the only means of meeting 
the demand for a speedy and reliable method of measuring the 
mental abilities of large groups of people. Under the supervision 

' Rugg, H. O. Statistical methods applied to education. New York : Houghton 
Mifflin and Co., 1917, p. 274. 



12 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

of Dr. L. M. Terman the writer directed the giving of Examina- 
tion a (Form A) and Examination Alpha (Form 5) of the Army 
Scale to 1,349 high-school pupils, representing eight California 
high schools, during the school year 1917-1918. 

Examination a consists of ten tests: (1) Oral Directions, 
(2) Memory for Digits, (3) Disarranged Sentences, (4) Arith- 
metical Reasoning, (5)' Information, (6) Synonym-Antonym, 
(7). Common Sense, (8) Number Series Completion, (9) Analogies, 
(10) Number Comparison. The total possible raw score is 237. 
This test was given to portions of the first-year high-school classes 
in the Oakland Technical, Oakland Central and Fremont, Oak- 
land, high schools and to all of the pupils present on the day of the 
examination at the Palo Alto Union High School. The total 
number of pupils was 715. 

Group Examination Alpha consists of eight tests: (1) Oral 
Directions, (2) Arithmetical Reasoning, (3) Practical Judgment, 
(4) Synonym-Antonym, (5) Disarranged Sentences, (6) Number 
Series Completion, (7) Analogies, (8) Information. This test 
was given to all pupils present on the day of examination in the 
San Mateo, Redwood City, Mountain View, and Santa Clara 
union high schools. The total number of these pupils was 624. 

These group mental examinations were applied to all of the 
pupils in each of the high schools enumerated above at exactly 
the same time. A sufficient number of examiners, trained by 
Dr. Terman, were taken to each high school, to cover the entire 
high school in one forty-five minute period. The size of the " 
groups ranged from 40 to 150. It took the writer and his assistant 
a total of 134 hours to test 107 high-school pupils by the individual 
method. Six trained examiners were able to give Examination a 
to 350 Palo Alto high-school pupils in 45 minutes. The test 
blanks were scored by university students. Their work was 
carefully checked and the results tabulated by the writer. 

Group Test Results Compared with 
Individual Test Results 

One hundred and sixteen of the high-school pupils tested with 
Examination a had previously been given the Stanford-Binet 
Scale. Table II makes comparison of the two kinds of mental 
examination. Although no Binet I. Q.'s are found in the group 
140-149, six Army Scale I. Q.'s are between 140 and 149. This 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



13 



is because a higher mental age is attainable on the Army Scale 
than on the Binet Scale. For example, a high-school boy fifteen 
years and two months old passed every test in the Stanford-Binet 

TABLE II. RELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'s OF 116 HIGH-SCHOOL 
PUPILS EARNED ON THE STANFORD-BINET SCALE AND THE 
I. Q.'s OF TH •: SAME PUPILS EARNED ON EXAMINA- 
TION a, ARMY SCALE 







I. Q.'s on Examination a 


, Army Scale . 






I, Q.'s on 

Stanford-Binet 

Scale 


80- 
89 


90- 
99 


100- 
109 


110- 
119 

(Median) 


120- 
129 


130- 
139 


140- 
149 


Totals 


/ 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 ' 


9 


130-139 










3 

7 


3 
9 


5 

1 


11 


120-129 






1 


3 


21 


110-119 (Median) 




2 


8 


11 


9 


2 




32 


100-109 






13 
U 


3 
8 


4 






20 


90-99 




7 
5 






26 


80-89 










5 


70-79 . . . 


1 












1 


















Totals 


1 


14 


33 


25 


23 


14 


6 


116 



Median for Binet I. Q.: group, 110-119 
Median for Army Scale I. Q. : group, 110-119 
Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.736; P. E., 0.029 

Scale, thus earning a mental age of nineteen years and six months, 
and an I. Q. of 129. On the Army Scale, Examination a, he made 
a raw score of 219, corresponding to a mental age score of twenty- 
one years and eleven months, and an I. Q. of 144.^ In other 
words, the Stanford-Binet Scale does not give the superior high- 
school pupil an opportunity to earn as high an I. Q. as he can 
earn on the Army Scale. This factor would tend to lower the 

* Mental age norms for ^oth tests of the Army Scale were worked out by Dr. 
Samuel Kohs and the writer. It was found that about fifteen points of raw score 
on Examination a and Examination Alpha corresponded roughly to a mental age year. 
Possible raw score, Examination a, 237, possible mental age twenty-three years; 
possible raw score, Alpha 212, possible mental age 23 years and 2 months. See Ap- 
pendix. 



14 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

correlation between the two sets of I. Q.'s. The correlation 
obtained in Table II (+0.736) is a strong indication that if the 
Stanford-Binet Scale is a valid means of finding the mental level 
of high-school pupils, the Army Scale Examination a is also valid 
for the same purpose. 

Army Scale Results Compared with 
High-School Marks 

The school work of all the high-school pupils examined by 
means of the two army group tests was carefully followed up for 
the school years 1917-1918 and 1918-1919. The marks given 
were reduced to a comparable basis by assigning arbitrary values 
to each type of mark employed by the various high schools. Thus 
an "A" or a"l" was given a value of 95; a "B" or a "2," a value 
of 85, etc. Letters or numbers with plus and minus signs were 
given intermediate values. All of the marks earned by a given 
pupil were averaged, but no case was included in the tables 
unless the marks for at least two semesters of school work, the 
equivalent of one year, were available. 

1. Army Scale, Group Examination a. — Table III makes a 
comparison between the I. Q.'s obtained from the Group Examina- 
tion a and the quality of high-school work of 494 high-school 
pupils. The total number taking the test was 715, but only 494 
cases had ratings for one year of school work. 

Since the correlation obtained ( + 0.343) is 12.8 times the 
indicated P. E., it has considerable significance. While it is 
not as high as the correlation between Binet I. Q.'s and school 
marks found in Table I, there are several factors which may have 
tended to lower the correlation. The army tests were designed 
for use with soldiers in cantonments. Many of the questions 
have to do with matters of common knowledge about a military 
camp, but with which high-school pupils have no acquaintance. 
Tliis would especially affect the scores of high-school girls. There 
are twenty cases falling in I. Q. groups below 95, where the 
indicated school work is of a quality of 80 percent or above, and 
fifteen of these cases, or 75 percent, are girls. 

Another factor which may have tended to lower the correla- 
tion is the skewness of the school marks curve toward the high 
percents. The median school marks group in Table III is 80-84. 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



15 



TABLE in. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'s OF ARMY GROUP 

EXAMINATION a AND THE QUALITY OF SCHOOL WORK 

OF 494 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 





Army Group Examination a I. Q.'s 




School 
Marks 


84 or 
Lower 


85- 
89 


90- 
94 


95- 
99 


100- 
104 


105- 
109 

(Median) 


110- 
114 


115- 
119 


120- 
124 


125 or 
Above 


Totak 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


U 


12 


90 or above 






3 
5 


2 
9 


2 

18 


3 

24 


6 

22 


6 

24 


6 

8 


6 

4 


34 


85-89 






114 


80-84 (Me- 
dian) .... 


1 


2 


9 


28 


41 


46 


30 


13 


9 


3 


182 


75-79 

70-74 

65-69 


1 
2 


3 
3 

1 


9 
4 

1 


19 
14 

4 


19 

11 

1 


19 
11 

1 
1 


19 

7 
2 


7 

1 
1 


2 

1 




98 
54 
11 


55-64 






















86 










Totals 


4 


9 


31 


76 


92 


105 


52 


26 


13 


494 



Medians: I. Q.'s, group 105-109; school marks, group 80-84 _, 

Semi-interquartile ranges: I. Q.'s, 6 points; school marks, 43^ percent ^ ; 

Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.343; P. E., 0.027 

This represents a grade of "B" or "2." It is necessary for these 
high-school pupils to receive marks of "B" or "2" in all subjects 
required for university recommendation. The Palo Alto high 
school is in close proximity to Stanford University, and the 
Oakland high schools are in the immediate vicinity of the Univer- 
sity of California. The fact that 68.8 percent of the grades 
given to these 494 high-school pupils were "B" or above is an 
indication that teachers were influenced in their marking by the 
demand for "B" grades for university recommendation. Many 
pupils with just average ability were given marks ranking superior. 
Hence there might be a rather wide difference between their 
mental ability as shown by the tests and their school progress as 
shown by their marks. 

2. Army Scale, Group Examination Alpha. — Table IV com- 
pares the I. Q.'s of 480 of the high-school pupils of San Mateo, 



16 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



Redwood City, Mountain View, and Santa Clara with their school 
marks. There were 624 pupils belonging to these high schools 
who took Examination Alpha, but only 480 cases came under 
the rule requiring ratings for one whole year of school work. 

TABLE IV. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE I. Q.'S OF THE ARMY 

GROUP EXAMINATION ALPHA AND THE QUALITY OF 

SCHOOL WORK OF 480 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 







Army 


Group Examination Alpha 


I. Q's. 






School 
Marks 


84 or 
Lower 


85- 
89 


90- 
94 


95- 
99 


100- 
104 


105- 
109 

{Median) 


110- 
114 


115- 
1J9 


120- 
124 


125 or 
Above 


Totals 


; 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


* 


9 


w 


It 


12 


90 or over. 








3 
8 
6 


3 
17 
22 


15 
15 
21 


12 
24 
20 


9 
13 
10 


9 
6 

5 


5 
6 
1 


56 


85-89 








89 


80-84 






4 


89 










75-79 {Me- 
dian) .... 






7 


25 


33 


23 


10 


7 


4 




109 


70-74 




4 
3 


10 
3 
2 


18 

12 

5 


14 

7 
3 


22 
8 

1 


12 
8 
1 


1 
1 


1 




82 


65-69 


1 


43 


55-64 






12 
















Totals 


1 


7 


26 


77 


99 


105 


87 


41 


25 


12 


480 



Medians: I. Q.'s, group 105-109; school marks, group 75-79 
Semi-interquartile ranges: I. Q.'s, 6 points; school marks, 63^ percent 
Correlation, Pearson's formula, 0.413; P. E., 0.026 

The correlation obtained in Table IV (-1-0.413) is 15.9 times 
the indicated P. E. and 0.07 higher than the correlation found 
in Table III. The higher correlation found in this table may be 
due to the fact that Examination Alpha was the result of careful 
revision of the first series of tests in the hght of preliminary 
experimentation in three army cantonments and the returns 
from the tests of several thousand school children. Also, the 
high schools in which Examination Alpha was applied were not 
in such close proximity to universities as were the high schools 
represented in Table III. The group median for school marks 
is 75-79, and only 48 . 8 percent of the ratings given in these four 
high schools ranged as high as "B" or over. 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



17 



When account is taken of the possible reasons for the difference 
in the correlations as shown in Tables III and IV, it is safe to 
say that they are of approximately equal value. For use in the 
public schools Examination Alpha is the better scale, because it 
consists of but eight tests, can be given in less time, is scored 
more rapidly, and costs less to print. 

Individual and Group Mental Tests as Means of 
Indicating Probable Retention or Elim- 
ination OF High-School Pupils 

1. Elimination among pupils tested with the Stanford-Binet 
Scale. — On the first day of April, 1919, it was found that 41 of the 
original 107 pupils tested in 1916-1917 with the Stanford-Binet 
Scale had dropped out of school, leaving 66 still in attendance. 
Table V gives the distribution of the 107 cases, showing the I. Q.'s 
of pupils who left high school to go to work, of pupils who were 
transferred to other high schools, and of pupils who still remain 
in the same high-school. 



table v. distribution on APRIL 1, 1919, OF 107 
high-school PUPILS tested with STANFORD- 
BINET SCALE IN 1916-1917 



BiNET I. Q.'s 

Earned in 
1916-1917 


Total 

Number of 

Cases 


Distribution April 1, 1919, 


BY PeRCENTS 


Out at 
Work (%) 


Out, Transfer'd 

to Other High 

Schools (%) 


Remaining in 
Same High 
School (%) 


/ 


2 


3 


4 


5 


79 or lower 

80-89 


1 

7 

29 
27 
22 
15 

6 


100 

72 

31 

22 









14 

9 
22 
27 
13 
33 



14 


90-99 


60 


100-109 


56 


110-119 


73 


120-129 


87 


130 or above 


67 


No. of cases 


107 


21 


20 


66 


Median I. Q.'s 




94 


110 


110 



18 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

The only pupil testing below 80 I. Q. dropped out at the end 
of the first semester of 1916-1917 to go to work. All of those in 
group 80-89 who left school to go to work, did so by the end of the 
first year. Failure in school work has been recognized as the 
most fruitful cause of elimination from high : :hool, but the 
relation between mental ability and failure in school work has 
not heretofore been given due consideration. At the end of two 
and one-half years none of those testing below 80, and only 28 
percent of those testing 80-89 remain in high school. On the 
other hand, 100 percent of those testing 110 or over are pursuing 
their studies either in the Palo Alto high school or in other high 
schools. When the average school ratings of the different groups 
is taken into account the close connection between mentality 
and elimination will be still more apparent. The average school 
rating of the 21 who left school to go to work was 73 percent; of 
tl e 20 trans erred to other high schools, 77 percent; and of the 
66 remaining in the Palo Alto high school, 79 percent. 

2. Elimination among pupils tested with the Army Examination 
a and Alpha. — Only five of the eight high schools where the Army 
Scale was applied were selected for follow-up work in connection 
with elimination because the records of the three Oakland high 
schools did not indicate whether the pupil leaving had been 
transferred to another high school or had gone to work. In the 
case of the Palo Alto, San Mateo, Redwood City, Mountain View, 
and Santa Clara high schools, it was comparatively easy to secure 
reliable data with reference to every pupil who took the test. 
The principals of all these schools had served in their respective 
positions from four to fourteen years, knew their pupils thor- 
oughly, and had on record information concerning the movements 
of those who had left school since the giving of the Army Tests 
in 1917-1918. 

Table VI gives for those tested with the Army Scale a distri- 
bution similar to that contained in Table V for the 107 tested with 
the Stanford-Binet Scale. The 955 pupils of the five high schools 
above mentioned have been distributed by I. Q.'s into four 
groups: (1) those who left high school to go to work; (2) those 
who transferred to some other high school; (3) those who grad- 
uated; (4) those remaining in high school on April 1, 1919. 
The follow-up work covered one and one-half years of school 
work. Figure 1 illustrates graphically the data of Table VI. 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



19 



TABLE VI. DISTRIBUTION OF 955 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS ON 

APRIL 1, 1919, WHO WERE TESTED WITH ARMY 

TESTS IN 1917-1918 BY I. Q. GROUPS 





Total 

Number or 

Cases 


Distribution on April 1, 1919, by 


Percents 


Army Scale 

I. Q.'s Earned 

1917-1918 


Out at 
Work 

(%) 


Out, Trans- 
ferred to Other 
High Schools 

(%) 


Out by 
Graduation 

(%) 


Remaining in 
Same High 
School (%) 


/ 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


79 or lower 

80-89 

90-99 


13 
73 
202 
283 
221 
101 
62 


61.5 

34.3 

26.2 

12.3 

4.0 

6.9 

1.6 


7.7 
8.2 
8.9 
8.8 
14.5 
11.8 
9.8 


0.0 
5.5 
11.4 
14.1 
23.0 
19.8 
24.6 


30.8 
52.0 
53.5 


100-109 

110-119 

120-129 

130 or over 


64.8 
58.5 
61.4 
64.0 


No. of Cases . . 


955 


138 


100 


153 


546 


Median I. Q.'s. 




96 


110 


111 


107 


Percent I. Q.'s 
below 100. . . 


^ 


62.4 


25.0 


17.6 


26.5 











1 










55 






» 






50 






A 






•5 






/^ 


\ . 


• 


40 






/ 


V 


• 


35 






/ 


/ V 


• 


30 




i 




\ 


y' \ \ 


25 




V 




A' 


\ \ ^ 






/ 


»v 


^ 


\ » ♦u 


20 




/ 




\ \ ■-. 


X5 

10 


y 


/ 


:/ 




\ \ > 




/ 


» 


» 




~-»-^* ".■ \ 


5 


/ 


.'-'>* 






^^\^v\ 


D 


i/— *•'' 










r 


1 









\.\.'» 79 or 8o - 89 90 - 99 IOO-I09 110-119.120-129 130- or 

.« lower ' »bo¥* 

3 Out "ut work*. 138 case'« 

• . • "trunefer'. 100 ■ 

S^ **»**■¥**• " "Braduatipn", i53 * 

FIGURE 1. ILLUSTRATING TABLE VI 



20 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



In this table there appears to be a strong confirmation of the 
findings of Table V, as the following comparison will show: 

TABLE VIA. MEDIAN I. Q.'s BY GROUPS 





Out at Work 


Out, Transferred to 
Other High School 


Remaining in 
Same High School 


/ 


2 


3 


4 


Table V 


94 
96 


110 
110 


110 


Table VI 


107 






TABLE VIB. PERCENT OF PUPILS IN EACH GROUP 
WHOSE I Q.'s WERE BELOW 100 




Out at Work 


Out, Transferred to 
other High Schools 


Remaining in 
Same High School 


1 


2 


3 


4 


Table V 


71.4 
62.4 


20.0 
25.0 


27.0 


Table VI 


26.5 







The agreement between the two tables is the more striking 
when it is remembered that the 107 high-schools pupils of Table V 
were all first-year pupils when the tests were given, while the 955 
pupils of Table VI comprise all the classes of five different schools. 

The tendency, noted in the discussion of Table II, for girls 
to make lower scores on the Army Scale than boys accounts for 
the 5.5 percent of pupils with I. Q.'s of 80-89 who appear in the 
"out by graduation" group. These four pupils were all girls, 
and their average rating in school work was 83 percent. 

Table VII indicates how school marks tend to correspond to 
mental level as indicated by I. Q.'s earned in the Army tests. 

Considering the "at work" cases, it appears that only the three 
highest I. Q. groups were doing a passing grade of work. Lack 
of mental ability was perhaps the most potent cause of elimina- 
tion, but it was not the only cause operating in these cases. When 
interest in the subjects offered, application, and ambition are 
lacking, high scores in the mental tests are not necessarily a 



Psychological Tests and School Success 



21 



TABLE Vn. AVERAGE SCHOOL MARKS OF 955 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS, 
DISTRIBUTED ACCORDING TO THE CAUSES OF LEAVING 



Cause of Leaving 


79 
I. Q. or 

Lower 


80- 

89 

LQ. 


90- 

99 

LQ. 


100- 
109 
LQ. 


110- 
119 
LQ. 


120- 
129 
LQ. 


130 
I. Q. or 
Higher 


General 
Average 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


S 


9 


At work 


65 
59 


64 
67 
83 


72 
76 
79 


66 

72 
84 


70 
82 
85 


75 
85 
84 


87 
86 
92 


71 3 


Transferred 

Graduated 


75.3 
84 5 








Average marks by 
I. Q. groups 


62.0 


71.3 


75.6 


74.0 


79.0 


81.3 


88.3 


77.3 



guarantee of school success. Turning now to the pupils trans- 
ferred to other high schools, it appears that they made better 
average marks under every I. Q. group, except the very lowest, 
than did the "at work" pupils; but it is evident that some of them 
transferred to other high schools because of failure in school 
work. Later checking up will no doubt find them out of school 
entirely. All of the cases in the "out by graduation" group show 
high average school marks, even those whose I. Q. is between 
80 and 89. These are the same four cases discussed in connection 
with Table VI. They illustrate how necessary it is for those 
employing mental tests to be conservative in accepting the re- 
sults of any single test as final. 

When the school marks earned by all of these "out" groups 
are averaged a series of marks is obtained, ascending gradually 
from the lowest to the highest I. Q. ratings, which indicates a 
definite tendency for the quality of school work to correspond 
to the mental level indicated by the Army tests. 

A further following-up of the 153 who graduated from the five 
high schools between September, 1917 and April, 1919, brought 
out the fact that 94 of them were continuing their education in 
college, university, or normal school. The median I. Q. of those 
going on to higher educational institutions was found to be 116. 
One high-school girl, who earned an I. Q. of 140 on the Army 
Scale, graduated from the San Mateo high school at the age of 
fourteen years and five months. Because of the minimum age 



22^ Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

limit of fifteen years for entrance to the university, she was com- 
pelled to wait seven months before continuing her education. 
Had her case been included in the "at college" group, the median 
I. Q. would have been 118. 

Taking into account all of the cases of high-school pupils 
tested either by the individual or group method of mental exami- 
nation we find the following ascending scale of median I. Q.'s as 
a further indication that the psychological tests disclosed the 
approximate mental level of the cases discussed in the foregoing 
tables: first-year high-school pupils, median I. Q., 105; high- 
school graduates, 111; those going on to college, 116. 

Summary 

1. Individual and group mental tests of the types described 
have been shown to be sufficiently reliable to justify their use as 
aids in determining the mental level of high-school pupils. 

2. Group tests, such as Army Scale Examinations a and 
Alpha, make possible a preliminary mental survey of an entire 
high-school population at the beginning of a school year. The 
resulting raw scores will be found to be of great value in grouping 
the pupils according to ability. Such tests should a ways be 
supplemented with every other possible means of discovering 
the mental level. The results should be considered tentative and 
subject to revision in the light of later developments. 

3. The high-school principal who makes such a preliminary 
mental survey of his pupils can be reasonably sure that 50 percent 
of those who test below normal will be eliminated within the 
first two years; that 25 percent additional of the subnormal 
group will have been transferred to other high schools because of 
failure in their school work; and that a negligible number will 
ever graduate. With this information at hand he can plan the 
curriculums of his pupils more intelligently. Discovering at the 
outset that from 15 to 30 percent of his pupils are incapable of 
succeeding in the conventional high-school subjects, he will 
undertake to make new adjustments to meet the situation. There 
will be fewer failures; more pupils will remain to take work that 
is adapted to their needs and capacities; and the high school will 
be less open to the charge of catering only to the intellectual 
aristocracy among its pupils. 



CHAPTER III 

THE USE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS IN THE EDUCA- 
TIONAL GUIDANCE OF HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 

In the previous chapter the writer has shown that there is a 
very close relationship between intelligence level and the elim- 
ination of pupils from high school. There are good grounds for 
the prediction that 75 percent of those who test below average, 
mentally, will fail in more than one-half of their studies during 
their first year of high school; that 50 percent of them will leave 
school to go to work during the first two years; and that none of 
them will remain to graduate. The members of this group demand 
special attention. If they are not carefully guided in the selection 
of their high-school work many of them will fail in all of their 
subjects during the first semester, with elimination as the inev- 
itable result. 

Heretofore we have acted upon the assumption that the only 
way to discover the capabilities of high-school pupils was to per- 
miL uicm to try themselves out in various subjects of the high- 
school curriculum. It has even been a common practice to 
require all first-year high-school pupils to take an abstract subject 
like algebra. Thus many a promising educational bark has gone 
v^own on the uncharted rocks of the first-year high-school subjects. 

Experimentation with psychological tests has now reached a 
stage where we can begin to hope that this wasteful trial and error 
method of procedure is to be discarded for a more scientific plan 
of educational guidance. No tests have yet been devised, either 
mental or pedagogical, which enable the adviser to chart unerr- 
ingly the educational possibilities of a given youth, but we have 
made sufficient progress in mental measurements to be able to 
estimate with approximate accuracy the prob.able school success 
of a given pupil. The results of a practical experiment in educa- 
tional guidance by means of mental tests will be described in the 
following pages. 

Conditions Surrounding the Experiment 

The mid-year viiia class of the Palo Alto intermediate school 
comprising 31 pupils was examined with the Stanford-Binet 

23 



24 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



Scale in January, 1918. Figure 2 shows the distribution of in- 
telligence quotients by chronological age groups. There were 
twelve thirteen-year-old pupils, eight fourteen-year-old, seven 
fifteen-year-old, and four sixteen-year-old pupils examined. The 
lowest I. Q. discovered in the thirteen-year-old group was 110. 
All of the thirteen-year-olds were, therefore, accelerated mentally. 
None of the fourteen-year-old group fell below 95 I. Q. They 
were all at or above age mentally. One fifteen-year-old had an 



j.v. 

l»9 

140 

135 
130 

125 
X20 
U5 

uo- 
105 

IQO 

95 
90 

85 
Bo 
75 
70 

65 
60 
55 



Chronolog- 16 Years 15 Years 14 Years 13 Years 

ical Age 4 Cases 7 Cases 8 Cases 12 Cases 

FIGURE 2. ILLUSTRATING DISTRIBUTION OF VUIA^ PUPILS BY I. Q.'S 
AND CHRONOLOGICAL AGES 



'In grade designations "A" means "second half." 



Psychological Tests in Educational Guidance 25 

I. Q. of 90 and would be listed as "below average" in intelligence. 
Of the four sixteen-year-old pupils, all of whom would be ac- 
counted chronologically retarded, three had I. Q.'s of 88, and one 
an I. Q. of 96. That is to say, one of the sixteen-year-olds was 
normal and three would rate as "dull-normal." 

Of the 31 members of the viiia class, 22 entered the Palo 
Alto high school in February, 1918. Four members of the class 
entered secondary schools elsewhere, two entered business col- 
leges, two went to work, and one, a girl with an I. Q. of 88, eloped 
with a soldier from a nearby encampment. 

Only four members of this viiia class had earned I. Q.'s 
below 95. One of these, as just indicated, did not enter high 
school. The remaining three entered high school, but two of 
them dropped out before the end of the first year. The percent 
of ehmination from the class of those who tested below 95 I. Q. 
was therefore 75.0. The one who remains in high school is making 
an average record in scholarship. She made a rating of "average" 
on an Army Test given a few weeks later, and has shown her- 
self capable of dihgent application to her school work. 

Each member of the class was questioned as to his or her vo- 
cational ambition, educational plans, and the subjects which he 
or she would like to take up during the first year of high school. 
These data, as well as results attained in Stanford-Binet and 
Army mental tests, were recorded on cards. 

Use Made of Information Gathered 

The cooperation of the vice-principal and entering class ad- 
viser was obtained in order that the members of the viiia class 
might receive intelligent educational guidance when they entered 
the high school. Duplicate sets of cards were prepared for the 
use of these persons. On registration day all the newly entered 
viiia graduates were referred to the vice-principal or the class 
adviser for help in making out their curriculums. No one was 
permitted to file a study card without this conference. 

Following are samples of the cards used in this experiment in 
educational guidance. The only change from the original is in 
the case of the name. 



26 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

CARD NO. 1 

Smith, Jane Chronological age: 

13 yrs . , 9 mo . 

Score Army Scale. . .151 Stanford-Binet mental age: 
Army Scale mental age: 16 yrs . , 3 mO . 

17 yrs . , 5 mo . 

Army Scale I. Q 124 Stanford-Binet I. Q 118 

High school subjects which Educational plans: 

pupil desires to take: To finish high 

Sewing school and take 

French "business college 

History course. 

Typewriting Vocational ambition: To "be 

Piano a stenographer or 

"bookkeeper. 

Grade of work done in intermediate and grammar schools: 

"B" and "B+" 

Comment of Examiner: If assigned tO al- 

ge"bra can safely be placed in 
first "rapid progress" division. 

Jane Smith was advised to take subjects that would make it 
possible for her to go on to college as well as to carry out her 
ambition to become a stenographer. She took up: English 
German, algebra, and typewriting. During the first semester of 
her high-school course she made an average of "B" in all of her 
subjects. 

Card No. 2 relates to Mary Jones who took exactly the 
subjects outlined on her card, except that being a first-year 
pupil she was permitted to take four subjects only and had to 
wait until her second year for drawing. At the end of the first 
semester in high school she had earned three "A" grades and a 
"B-f ," with an average of 93 percent. 

'Here was the case of a girl with very superior ability as indicated 
by two different mental examinations, by her school record and by 
the estimates of her elementary and intermediate school teachers. 
She gave evidence of being an independent thinker, of knowing 



Psychological Tests in Educational Guidance 27 

CARD NO. 2 

Jones, Mary Chronological age: 13 yrs., 

1 mo . 

Score Army Scale. . .148 Stanford-Binet mental age: 

17 yrs . , 2 mo. 

Army Scale mental age: 

17 yrs . , 2 mo . 

Army Scale I. Q 131 Stanford-Binet I. Q 131 

High school subjects which Educational plans: 

pupil desires to take: To finish high 

English school and attend 
Algebra a university or 
Latin normal school. 

History , Vocational ambition: To 

Drawing "become a drawing 

teacher. 

Grade of work done in grammar and intermediate schools : " A " 
Comment of Examiner: KnoWS JUSt where she 

is going and how to get there. 
May safely he permitted to select 
her own course of study. Assign 
to first division in algebra. 

just what she wanted to make of herself, and just what she would 
have to do by way of preparation. The necessity for educational 
and vocational guidance in her case might well be questioned. 
However, it was a real advantage to her teachers to know at the 
very beginning of her high-school career the quality of her ability 
and something of her life plans in order that they might give 
immediate and sympathetic cooperation. Without this knowl- 
edge they might have made the mistake of holding her back to the 
pace of the "average" pupil. Fortified by the facts relative to her 
mental gifts and vocational ambitions, she is to be permitted to 
complete her high-school course in three years. 

There is just as much danger that the bright pupil will not be 
given enough to do, as tha;t the dull pupil will be given tasks that 
are too dijQaicult to perform. 



28 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

CARD NO. 3 

Roe, Richard Chronological age: 14 yrs., 

4 mos . 
Score Army Scale... 150 Stanford-Binet mental age: 
Army Scale mental age: 16 yrs. 9 mo. 

17 yrs . , 4 mo . 

Army Scale I. Q 120 Stanford-Binet I. Q .117 

High school subjects which Educational plans: 

pupil desires to take: To finish high 

English school then at- 

History tend a university 

Algehra or the U. S. 

French naval academy. 

Vocational ambition: Chemi- 
cal engineer or 
naval officer. 

Grade of work done in elementary and intermediate schools: 

Very poor. Estimated as "average" 
"by some grade teachers, and as 
"helow average" "by others. 

Comment of Examiner: Boy haS ahility "but 

needs to he waked up. Suggest 
that he take general science in 
place of history for first 
year. Also suggest that he "be 
placed in first division in alge- 
bra where he will have to work. 
He will need to develop ability 
in both science and mathematics if 
he is to follow his vocational 
ambition. 

The boy whose card is set forth above enrolled for English, 
algebra, history, and general science, upon entering high school. 
During his first half year he made grades of "C'in English, and 
"B" in each of his other subjects. This was a great improvement 
over the grades earned by him in the eighth grade. A recent 



Fsychological Tests in Educational Guidance 29 

checking up shows that he has brought up his English grade and 
is maintaining college recommendation standing in all his work. 
The mental tests were an aid to his advisers in discovering how to 
spur him on to creditable achievement in his school work. 

CARD NO. 4 
Brown, Carrie Chronological age: 15 yrs ., 

?core Army Scale. . . 100 7 mO . 

Army Scale mental age: Stanford-Binet mental age: 

14 yrs ., mo ., 14 yrs., 2 mo. 

Army Scale I. Q 89 Stanford-Binet I. Q 90 

High school subjects which 

pupil desires to take: Educational plans: 

English ' To go to Mills 
Alge"bra College 

Latin Vocational ambition: To "be 

Typing a Chemist. 

Drawing 

Grade of work done in intermediate and grammar schools: 

Grades in 8A class only fair, even 
in work that is "being repeated. 
Estimates of elementary and inter- 
mediate teachers: "slow" but 
a conscientious worker. 

Comment of Examiner: Should be disCOUr- 

aged as to taking Latin. Algehra 
doubtful, but if she insists in 
view of desire to go to college, 
assign to second division. 

The program finally worked out by Carrie Brown and the class 
adviser included English,, algebra, free-hand drawing, and typing. 
Her grades at the end of the first semester in high school were: 
English, "C"; algebra, "E" (failure); free-hand drawing, "C"; 
typing, "B." She had failed in algebra, the subject counted as 
doubtful by the examiner, and had earned less than college recom- 
mendation grades in the only other subjects that would be counted 



30 "j^Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



toward entrance to Mills College. Even if she completes high 
school her chance of continuing in college is not at all bright. 

A sufficient number of sample cards have been described to 
illustrate the method employed. There was no coercion. Counsel 
and advice in the selection of subjects were all that was attempted, 
but the counsel and advice offered were based on all the signi- 
ficant information with regard to mental ability, school success, 
vocational ambition, and teachers' estimates of ability, that could 
be obtained. Certain pupils elected to take subjects which the 
advisers felt sure they would fail in and made passing grades. 
Others taking subjects on the advice of the counselors failed. 
Such cases simply illustrate the truth that no human agency, how- 
ever fortified with information or however careful to mix common 
sense with theories, can hope to be infallible. The general results 
of the experiment, however, were very satisfactory. 

Results Attained by "Guided" and "Unguided" 
High-School Pupils 

The original group of 107 high-school pupils which entered 
the Palo Alto high school in September, 1916, were examined with 
the Stanford-Binet Scale after entering high school. They had 
already selected their courses of study at the time of being ex- 
amined, hence can properly be designated as the "unguided" 
group. A comparison of the first year's work done by the mem- 
bers of the "unguided" group with the work done by the group 
of 22 that entered high school in February, 1918, and which had 
the benefit of counsel based on mental tests and other significant 
data, will illustrate the value of careful guidance as against the 
trial and error method of selecting high-school courses of study. 



TABLE VIII. COMPARATIVE FACTS REGARDING ' 
AND "unguided" GROUPS OF HIGH-SCHOOL 


'GUIDED 
PUPILS 




Group 


Out at 
Work 


Per- 
cent 


Out by 
Transfer 


Per- 
cent 


Failed 
1 Subject 


Per- 
cent 


FaUed 
2 or More 


Per- 
cent 


Guided.... 
Unguided . . 


1 
13 


4.5 
12.1 


2 
14 


9.1 
13.1 


4 
33 


18.2 
30.8 



11 


0.0 
10.3 



i 



It is not exactly true to fact to designate the original group of 
107 as the "unguided" group. Most of them had been examined 



Psychological Tests in Educational Guidance 31 

with the Stanford-Binet before the end of the first six-week period. 
Whenever the results of the first six weeks of school work con- 
firmed the indications of the mental tests that a pupil would prob- 
ably fail in such abstract subjects as algebra, Latin, etc., that 
pupil was permitted to drop the subject and continue the semester 
carrying but three subjects. The subject dropped at the end of 
the first six-week period was not counted as a failure in compiling 
the data for Table VIII. The mental tests were utilized to aid in 
correcting the mistakes made by the pupils in the unguided selec- 
tion of their subjects. To this extent, then, the original group 
was guided, but the guidance came after, not before school work 
was begun. 

The number of failures registered against the "unguided" 
group at the end of their first year in high school would undoubt- 
edly have been greatly increased if it had not been for the limited 
guidance above described. This fact gives greater significance to 
the data presented in Table VIII. 

The median I. Q. of the unguided group was 105, and the 
median I. Q. of the guided group was 108, a difference of three 
points in favor of the guided group, but this is not in itself an ade- 
quate explanation of the superior record made by the guided 
group during its first year in high school. 

The most significant facts to be found in Table VIII are those 
relating to number of failures in one subject, and in two or more 
subjects. It appears that 30.8 percent of the unguided group 
failed in one subject, and 10.3 percent failed in two or more sub- 
jects during their first year in high school, while of the guided 
group only 18.2 percent failed in one subject and none of them 
failed in two subjects. Since it has been shown that failures in 
school work tend to increase the percent of elimination it is reason- 
able to attribute the small percent of elimination due to leaving 
high school to go to work, in the case of the guided group, to entire 
absence of failures in two or more subjects. 

The results of the above described experiment in educational 
guidance by means of mental tests would seem to justify the con- 
clusion that such tests may be of material assistance to the high- 
school administrator, if used in connection with other significant 
data. It is certain that the methods applied in this instance, if 
employed in any high school, would prove greatly superior to the 
wasteful "trial and error" methods that now prevail. 



32 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



Relation of General Level of Intelligence to Success in 

A Given Subject 

In Table IX is shown the correlation between general levels 
of intelligence and high-school grades in algebra. The algebra 
grades are recorded under the letters A, B + , B, C, C-, D, and E. 
The I. Q.'s come under the groups 84-89, 90-94, 95-99, etc. 

TABLE IX. CORRELATION BETWEEN I. Q.'s AND GRADES 
IN ALGEBRA OF 113 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 



Algebra 
Grades 






I 


.Q.'s 


(Stan 


ford-Binet) 








Totals 


80- 
84 


85- 
89 


90- 
94 


95- 
99 


100- 
104 


110- 
109 


110- 
114 


115- 
119 


120- 
124 


125- 
over 


"A" 








2 


1 


3 



1 

7 
5 


1 

2 
5 
3 


1 
2 
5 
3 


3 
5 
2 
3 
1 


11 


"B4-" 








10 


"B" 




2 
1 


2 

4 


3 
5 
1 
2 
3 


7 
6 

1 


3 
2 
1 
1 
1 


36 


"C" 




32 


"C— " 




3 


"D" 




1 
3 


5 


1 

2 






6 


"E" 


1 








15 












Totals 


1 


7 


11 


16 


15 


11 


16 


11 


11 


14 


113 



Correlation (Pearson): 0.46 
Probable error: 0.05 

The correlation obtained, 0.46, which is nine times the prob- 
able error can be counted as having considerable significance. An 
examination of the data contained in Table IX will show that 
twelve of the fifteen failures in algebra, or 80.0 percent of the total 
number of failures, were earned by pupils with I. Q.'s below 100. 
There were 35 pupils having I. Q.'s below 100, and 26 of them, or 
74.3 percent earned marks below "B," which is the college recom- 
mendation grade in California. On the other hand there were 78 
pupils with I. Q.'s above 100, and 45 of these, or 63.0 percent, 
earned marks of "B" or above. An I. Q. of 120 or over denotes 
very superior intelligence. There are 25 cases with I. Q.'s 120 or 
over in Table IX. All of these succeeded in earning passing 
grades in algebra. Only one received a mark as low as "C-." 

High-school statistics show that algebra is responsible for more 
failures of first-year pupils than any other subject. Table IX 



Psychological Tests in Educational Guidance 



33 



suggests that probable success or failure in algebra can be inferred 
from the general level of intelligence as disclosed by mental tests. 
It follows that the high percent of failure in algebra could be 
materially reduced if only those were encouraged to take the sub- 
ject whose general level of intelligence measured up to average or 
better. 

Relation of Score in a Particular Mental Test to Success 
IN A Given High-School Subject 

Test No. 9, in Army Scale, Group Examinations a and b, is a 
"word relations" test. It involves a knowledge of word meanings 
and also the ability to use words intelligently in their proper re- 
lations to one another. Table X compares the scores made by 
171 first-year pupils of the Palo Alto high school in Test No. 9, 
with the grades made by the same pupils in English during their 
first high-school year. 

The directions for giving the test are as follows: 

In each of the lines below, the first two words have a certain relation. Notice 
that relation and draw a line under the one word in the parenthesis which has that 
particular relation to the third word. Begin with No. 1 and mark as many sets as you 
can before time is caHed. 



TABLE X. CORRELATION BETWEEN GRADES IN ENGLISH AND SCORES 

IN GROUP INTELLIGENCE TEST NO. 9 OF ARMY SCALE 

OF 1 7 1 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 



Marks in 

First-Year 

English 


Scores in Test No. 9, Examinations 


a and b 




1- 
4 


5- 
9 


10- 
14 


15- 
19 


20- 
24 


25- 
29 


30- 

34 


35- 
39 


40 


Totals 


"A" 








1 

1 

5 

17 


4 
7 

16 

17 

1 

1 


1 

14 
19 

8 

1 


3 
10 
13 

6 


2 
2 
6 

2 




11 


"B+" 






1 

1 
9 


35 


"B" 






60 


"C" 




3 


62 


"D" 




2 


«E" 
















1 






















Totals 




3 


11 


24 


46 


43 


32 


12 




171 



Correlation (Pearson): 0.48 
Probable error: 0.04 



34 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

Sample sets are then given by the examiner to illustrate what 
is wanted : 

sky — blue: grass — (grow, green, cut, dead) 
fish — swims: man — (boy, woman, walks, girl) 
day — night: white-^(red, black, clear, pure) 

There were forty sets of words and the time allowed was three 
minutes. For purposes of tabulation the. scores made by the 
pupils are grouped: 1-4, 5-9, . . . 35-39, 40-. The English grades 
are indicated by the letters A, B + , B, C, C — , D and E. 

The correlation, 0.478, is twelve times the probable error and 
indicates that a good score in the "word relations" test is a fairly 
good index of abiHty in first-year high-school English. The marks 
in English were the final year marks, which represent the minimum 
of "D's" and "E's," because all conditions and failures had been 
removed that could be made up. The median score in Test No. 9, 
was 26, hence scores of 30 or over could be considered superior. 
There were 44 pupils who made scores of 30 or over, and 36 of these 
or 82.0 percent made marks in first-year Enghsh of "B" or above. 
Of the 89 who made scores of from 20 to 29 inclusive, 68.5 percent 
made marks in first-year English of "B" or above. While of the 
38 who made scores of from one to nineteen inclusive, only 23.7 
percent made marks of "B" or above. 

Stated in terms of recommendation for college the above analy- 
sis of the data of Table X means that 76.3 percent of the high- 
school pupils whose ability in word relations is represented by a 
score of less than 20 fail to secure a college recommendation grade, 
while only 18.0 percent of those who attain a score of 30 or over 
in the same test fail to secure such a grade. 

These results seem to indicate that a series of tests involving 
the fundamental traits of mind essential to the successful study of 
English could be devised. But there are so many mental traits 
involved in the mastery of the subject of English that a series of 
tests bringing into play all those traits would undoubtedly be 
found to be a good test of general intelligence as well as a test of 
specific ability in English. 

Summary and Conclusions 
1. The results of an experiment in educational guidance, in 
which all the members of an viiia class about to enter high 



Psychological Tests in Educational Guidance 35 

school were given mental tests and advised with reference to their 
first-year high-school work, proved very satisfactory. Compared 
with an unguided group it was found that while 3 1 percent of the 
unguided group failed in one subject, and 10 percent failed in two 
or more subjects during their first high-school year, only 18 per- 
cent of the guided group failed in one subject and none of them 
failed in two subjects. The mental tests aided in the discovery of 
the pupil's general level of intelligence, made possible the giving 
of sound educational advice at the time when it would do the most 
good, and thus tended to reduce the percent of failure and elim- 
ination. The methods employed can be adapted to the needs of 
any high school. 

2. The general level of intelligence is shown to have real sig- 
nificance as a means of predicting success in a particular subject, 
such as algebra. In Table IX it was shown that 100 percent of 
those having I. Q.'s of 120 or over passed in their algebra, while 
40 percent of those with I. Q.'s below 100 either failed or were con- 
ditioned in algebra, and only 26 percent of the members of this 
group earned college recommendation grades. The general level 
of intelligence could be relied upon as a means of selecting those 
who would be most likely to succeed in algebra and kindred sub- 
jects. 

3. Success in a particular test of a series may be a fairly reliable 
index of success in a high-school subject involving the mental 
traits supposed to be measured by the test in question. High 
scores in the "word-relations" test of the Army Scale, Examina-t 
tions a and b, correspond generally to high marks in first-year 
high-school English, while scores below twenty in the same test 
correspond generally to low marks in the same subject. 

4. Mental tests for purposes of prognosis in individual high- 
school subjects such as algebra, English, etc., could no doubt be 
devised. But the mastery of any high-school subject involves 
such a complex of mental traits that any test which proves to be a 
good test of ability to succeed in one subject is quite apt to be 
found a good test of general mental ability. It has already been 
shown that a high-school pupil having a high level of intelligence 
will probably succeed in all of his subjects, and conversely that 
a pupil having a low level of intelHgence is apt to fail in most of his 
high-school subjects. The best way, therefore, in which to arrive 



36 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



at an estimate of a given pupil's probable success in a specific high- 
school subject is to discover the general level of his intelligence. 
It follows that standardized mental tests may render invaluable 
service in the educational guidance of high-school pupils. Partic- 
ularly will this be found to be true if the results of the mental test 
are interpreted in the light of other significant data, such as 
school marks made in previous grades, teachers' estimates of 
ability, and educational and vocational plans. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE USE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS IN THE VOCA- 
TIONAL GUIDANCE OF HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 

The use of psychological tests as a basis for the prediction of 
probable school success, and in the educational guidance of high- 
school pupils has been discussed in Chapters II and HI. The use 
of such tests in the vocational guidance of high-school pupils will 
be discussed in this chapter. 

The Employment Manager and the Vocational Counselor 

The application of psychological tests to the selection of men 
for particular jobs is well along in the experimental stage. ^ The 
employment manager has demonstrated the value of such tests 
when used in the selection of employees. If the tests are care- 
fully devised to discover whether the applicants have certain 
essential mental qualifications for the kind of work they will be 
called upon to perform, and if final selection is made from the 
few who make high scores in the tests, the results are likely to 
be satisfactory to the employer. When in addition to specific 
mental tests, appropriate trade or performance tests are given, 
the employment manager or personnel expert can select from the 
highest 25 percent of applicants with reasonable assurance that 
they will make good at the tasks assigned to them. These tests 
tend effectively to sift out the undesirables, to reduce the amount 
of labor turnover, and to secure for the employer a higher grade 
of employees. 

The person who selects men for a particular occupation needs 
only to know the qualifications for success in that occupation. 
He can plan his tests with a view to ehminating all those who do 
not measure up to the established standard. If only five out 
of one hundred applicants are selected and they all prove to be 
adapted to their work the tests by which they were selected are 
counted as satisfactory. The ninety-five rejected applicants do 
not concern the employment manager. 

'Link, H. C. Employment psychology. New York: Macmillan Co., 1919. 

37 



38 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

The vocational counselor, however, has to think of the ninety- 
five as well as the five. His field is a broad one. He is called 
upon to advise people possessing every variety of fitness to enter 
every possible kind of occupation. It would be manifestly 
impossible for the vocational counselor to give adequate trade 
or psychological tests (Corresponding to the infinite variety of 
occupations open to American youths. 

It is true that he must avail himself of every possible scientific 
aid in arriving at his conclusions. His preparation will necessarily 
include a wide knowledge of occupations, and special training 
in the discovery of occupational aptitudes. But he should 
never persuade himself or lead others to believe that he is able 
to chart unerringly their abilities and give them an absolute 
vocational classification. " The successful counselor will under- 
stand at the outset that he is a guide and not a dictator, and 
that he is dealing with probabilities and not with certainties. ^ 

Occupational Levels of Intelligence 

Among the factors which the counselor must take into account 
in estimating the probability of a person's success in an occupa- 
tion, the intelligence level is one of the most important. If we 
accept Stern's definition of intelligence as a working basis for 
the discussion of the subject, there can be no question of the vital 
connection between intelligence and vocational success. Stern 
says:^ ''Intelligence is a general capacity of an individual con- 
sciously to adjust his thinking to new requirements: it is general 
mental ^adaptability to new problems and conditions of life." 
Given a high degree "of mental adaptability to new problems and 
conditions of life" coupled with energy, persistence, and reliability, 
it would be reasonable to assume that one's range of possible voca- 
tional success would be wide. Conversely given a low level of 
intelligence, even though the other qualities mentioned are 
present, one's range of possible vocational success would be greatly 
restricted. 

* Kitson, H. D., "Vocational guidance and the theory of probability," School 
Review, 28:143-50, February, 1920. 

'Stem, William. The psychological methods of testing intelligence. Baltimore, 
Warwick & York, 1914, p. 3. 



^1 



Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance 39 

* We have already gone far enough in the development of intel- 
ligence tests to justify the statement that individual levels of 
intelligence can be discovered with approximate accuracy. The 
next step, so far as vocational guidance is concerned, is to discover 
whether or not there are occupational intelligence levels, i.e. 
levels of intelligence more or less characteristic of the workers 
in a given occupation. That there are discoverable differences 
in the intelligence levels of workers in the various occupations 
is suggested by the findings of the Division of Psychology, 
Sanitary Corps, United States Army.* 

Table XI is derived from the chart found on page 23 of the 
pamphlet. Army Mental Tests. The median ratings of this chart 
are changed from the letters "A," "B," etc. to the raw scores on 
the Alpha Army Scale (which range from to 212). For each of 
the 43 occupations selected from the 72 shown on the chart, the 
median score is given, as well as the range of the middle 50 per- 
cent of the scores. The top line of the table would then read: 
laborers, median score, 35; range of scores made by the middle 
50 percent, 21-63. It should then be understood that 25 percent 
of the laborers scored less than 21 points, while the top 25 percent 
scored over 63 points out of a possible 212 points. The chart was 
made up from the returns of approximately 36,500 men, and the 
data were taken from the soldiers' qualification cards. 

Figure 3 illustrates graphically the spread of the middle 50 
percent of the scores on Army Alpha by occupational groups. 
There is considerable overlapping. The unskilled, semi-skilled, 
and skilled labor groups differ but little as to the beginning of 
the middle 50 percent of scores (21, 23, and 26 respectively). But 
there is a distinct difference in the upper limits, which are 63, 
70, and 95 respectively. The beginning of the middle 50 percent 
of the business and clerical group is nearly as high as the upper 
limit for the unskilled labor group, and the beginning of the middle 
50 percent of the professional group is higher than the upper limit 
of the skilled labor group. 

If the scores of the entire number of men examined by the 
Division of Psychology, Sanitary Corps, of the United States 
Army, could be grouped by occupations the final results of com- 
pilation would probably show some deviations from the medians 

*Army mental tests, methods, typical results, and practical applications. Washing- 
ton: Government Printing Ofl&ce, November, 1918. 



TABLE XI. OCCUPATIONAL INTELLIGENCE LEVELS, BASED ON ARMY 
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS OF 36,500 MEN. ALPHA SCALE 



Occupations 

Laborers (Unskilled) — 
Semi-skilled Labor 

Cobblere 

Teamsters 

Farm workers 

Barbers 

Horse-shoers 

Skilled Labor 

R. R. shop-mechanics. . . 

Bricklayers 

Cooks 

Bakers 

Painters 

Blacksmiths 

Bridge-carpenters 

General carpenters 

Butchers 

Locomotive enginemen. . . 

Machinists 

R. R. conductors 

Plumbers 

Tool-makers 

Auto-repairmen 

Chauffeurs 

Tool-room-experts 

Policemen-detectives . . . . 

Auto-assemblers 

Ship-carpenters 

Business and Clerical 

Telephone operators 

Concrete const'n foremen 

Photographer 

General electrician 

Telegraphers 

R. R. clerks 

General clerks 

Mechanical engineers. . . . 

Bookkeepers 

Dental oflScers 

Mechanical draughtsmen. 

Stenographers 

Accountants 

Professional 

Civil engineers 

Medical ofl&cers 

A Army chaplains 

Engineer officers 



Median Score 



Range of Middle SO Percent 



35 

39 
41 
42 
43 
44 

45 
48 
49 
53 
53 
54 
55 
57 
58 
59 
61 
62 
62 
63 
63 
63 
64 
64 
65 
66 

70 

75 

77 

82 

84 

92 

96 

98 

99 

106 

112 

115 

117 

125 
130 
150 
157 



21 to 63 



23 to 67 


23 to 68 


24 to 70 


22 to 70 


25 to 70 


26 to 83 


23 to 81 


28 to 79 


35 to 83 


31 to 79 


29 to 83 


27 to 84 


33 to 85 


33 to 85 


33 to 82 


33 to 86 


40 to 84 


38 to 87 


41 to 88 


41 to 89 


38 to 90 


43 to 88 


44 to 89 


44 to 97 


49 to 95 


58 to 99 


48 to 116 


52 to 104 


58 to 110 


59 to 107 


66 to 116 


74 to 123 


63 to 133 


78 to 126 


84 to 130 


79 to 134 


93 to 142 


101 to 145 


98 to 147 


101 to 165 


109 to 173 


134 to 184 



Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance 



41 



Approximate occupational intelligence levels: 

1. Unskilled labor Median 35, Middle 50% 21 to 63 

2. Semi-skilled " 42, " " 23 to 70 

3. Skilled labor " 61, " " 26 to 95 

4. Business and clerical " 96, " " 58 to 145 

5. Professional " 140, » " 98 to 184 




FIGURE 3. SHOWING SPREAD OF MIDDLE SO PERCENT OF CASES, 
TABLE XI, BY OCCUPATIONS 



TABLE XII. VOCATIONAL AMBITIONS OF 930 HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS 
DISTRIBUTED ACCORDING TO INTELLIGENCE RATINGS 
ON ARMY SCALE ALPHA AND GROUP 
EXAMINATIONS a AND b 



Letter rating 


C— 


C 


c+ 


B 


A 




Alpha 


25-44 


45-59 


60-74 


75-89 


90-104 


105-119 


120-134 


135-212 


Total 




25-49 


50-67 


68-84 


85-99 


100-119 


120-137 


138-154 


155-237 








Choice of Oooupation 




Acaicm.TUM: 




3 


1 


S 


4 
1 


7 


10 


12 


41 


Floricultur* 




1 


Forestry 






1 




1 




2 


4 46 


Mbounical and In- 

DUSraiAL 










4 








4 












2 
3 
1 






2 








2 


5 




8 


3 


21 








1 












1 
1 






1 


Milliner 
















1 


Printer 










1 


1 
1 




2 


Aviator 










1 


2 34 


BUSINIU AMD ClEE- 
ICAL 

Banker 








1 
10 
6 








1 
6 
5 


2 






3 
1 


5 
2 


22 

5 


9 

3 


7 

1 
1 


62 


Business manager . 




23 
1 


Qerk (sales) 






1 


1 


1 

2 
41 


1 
1 
1 

1 
38 


3 












2 


Real estate 








1 


1 
33 


1 
25 


3 


Salesman (Tr) .... 








4 


Stenographer 


2 


2 


11 


24 


176 276 


Unclassi^ceo 
Actress 








2 


1 
3 
10 


1 
3 

5 






4 


Army and Navy . . 








2 
6 

1 


6 

3 


14 








2 


2 


28 








1 


Dog Fancier 










1 

1 

10 

1 




1 









1 
4 


7 


1 
11 


1 
8 


1 
6 


5 








4< 








I 












1 


1 


1 
1 


3 


Writer 












2 104 


Professional 
Architect 












3 






3 


BacteriologiBt . . . . 












1 
3 
2 

32 

9 

2 

1 

10 

47 


1 
7 
2 
3 
44 
5 
7 
3 

10 

33 


2 


Chemist 








1 
2 


3 


3 

1 
2 
30 
3 
2 
1 


14 


Dentist 




1 




11 


Druggist 




5 


Engineering 






2 


12 


20 
2 
2 


140 








10 


Law 










20 












5 














1 










1 
23 


4 
44 


11 
68 


3« 


Teaching 






8 


223 470 


Totals 


2 


9 


40 


103 


185 


215 


190 


187 


930 







Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance 



43 



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I I 



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44 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

and middle 50 percents given in Table XI. But the general 
tendencies therein indicated would no doubt be confirmed. There 
would be found more or less clearly defined levels of intelligence 
in the various occupations, corresponding roughly to the amount 
of intelligence necessary to succeed in them. There would be 
much overlapping and within each occupation a wide range of 
intelligence would be found. But in the occupational groups 
above unskilled labor one would expect to find critical scores^ 
or points below which occupational success could not be expected." 
In the professional group for example, one would expect to find 
the greatest number of occupational failures among the lowest 
25 percent, i. e., among those who made scores ranging from to 
98. 

Application to Guidance of High-School Pupils 

How a knowledge of individual and occupational intelligence 
levels may be utilized in the vocational guidance of high-school 
pupils can be illustrated by the data presented in Table XII. In 
this table 930 pupils in eight high schools are distributed accord- 
ing to vocational ambition and scores made on Army Scale Alpha 
and Examinations a and b. The different occupational choices 
have been divided into five groups: agriculture, mechanical and 
industrial, business and clerical, unclassified,' and professional. 
The professional group covers 50.5 percent of the choices, 470 
cases; unclassified, 11.2 percent, 104 cases; business and clerical, 
29.7 percent, 276 cases; mechanical and industrial, 3.6 percent, 
34 cases; and agricultural, 5.0 percent, 46 cases. 

The need for vocational guidance of high-school pupils is 
brought out very clearly by the way in which the choices are con- 
centrated in the professional, semi-professional (i. e. unclassified), 
and business and clerical divisions of Table XII. These include 
31 different occupations, popularly known as "white collar jobs," 
and comprise 91.2 percent of the 930 choices. Agricultural, me- 
chanical and industrial occupations include 11 different employ- 
ments, and 8.8 percent of the choices. See Figure 4. 

* Thurstone, L. L. "Mental tests for college entrance," Journal of Educational 
Psychology, 10:129-41, March, 1919. 

' Cowdery, K. M. "A statistical study of intelligence as a factor in vocational 
success," Journal of Delinquency, 4:227 , November, 1919. 

^ Most of the occupations belonging to this group are called "professional" by the 
United States Census Bureau. 



Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance 45 

Vocational opportunities, as shown by the United States 
census reports,* are just about the reverse of the distribution of 
high-school pupils' occupational choices. Agriculture and the 
mechanical and industrial arts engage the energies of 61.1 percent 
of the gainful workers in the United States, and only 8.8 percent 
of the high-school pupils had ambitions looking toward these 
fields. Business and clerical employments enlist only 14.1 percent 
of the gainful workers of the country; and yet 29.7 percent of the 
high-school pupils plan to enter these fields of effort. In the 
United States census reports practically all of the occupations 
designated in Table XII as unclassified, are included under the 
caption "professional service." In spite of this liberal interpre- 
tation of the term "professional" only 4.4 percent of the gainful 
workers are found to be engaged in professional service in this 
country. Nevertheless the professional and unclassified divisions 
of Table XII include 574 choices, or 61.7 percent of the total 
number. 

Although it is a fact that the high school represents a rather 
highly selected group of young people from whose ranks the 
clerical, business, and professional occupations are very largely 
recruited, it is apparent that by no means 91 .2 percent of high- 
school pupils will find their way into these occupational fields. 
Furthermore for their own best good and the best good of the 
nation a great many of them should be directed toward the 
agricultural, mechanical, and industrial fields. 

The question may be raised as to the use that a vocational 
counselor might make of facts regarding the intelligence of high- 
school pupils such as are shown in Table XII. Assuming that 
occupational levels approximating those found in Table I have 
been established, the counselor could proceed on the theory that 
those falling within the lowest quarter of intelligence ratings, 
i. e. who make scores lower than the beginning score for the 
middle 50 percent of a given occupation, would probably have 
small chances of success as workers in that occupation. 

Take the professional group. The intelligence-score limits 
of the middle 50 percent as shown in Table XI are from 98 to 184 
(Alpha). There are fifty cases in the professional group, Table 

* Thirteenth census of the United States, 1910. Volume 4: population: occupation 
statistics. Washington: Government Printing Ofl&ce, 1914, p. 40. 



46 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

XII, who made an intelligence score of less than 90 points on the 
Alpha scale. The counselor could safely consider the cases 
falUng in this quarter of the professional group as doubtful. 
If teachers' estimates of intelligence and school marks confirmed 
the findings of the mental tests, he would be justified in making 
an effort to direct the thoughts of those boys and girls toward 
some other life career. 

Specific occupations treated in the manner just outlined for 
the entire professional group would yield the following percents 
of doubtful cases: draughtsmen, 23.8 percent; bookkeepers, 21 
percent; stenographers 22.1 percent; dentists, 18.1 percent; 
engineers, 24.3 percent; lawyers, 15 percent; doctors, 13.9 percent; 
and teachers, 33.6 percent. 

If by making use of intelligence ratings of individual pupils 
in connection with the intelligence levels of the occupations which 
they are ambitious to enter the vocational counselor can give 
them more accurate advice as to the life career in which they are 
most apt to succeed he should by all means make use of such 
ratings. But it will probably be pointed out that intelhgence 
ratings are not in themselves sufficiently reliable to justify their 
use in vocational guidance. To this objection it may be replied 
that the high-school counselor has at hand means of verifying 
the results of the mental tests. He can secure the estimates of 
teachers and others who know the pupils and he can secure the 
record of their success in school tasks. Agreement between 
teachers' estimates of intelligence and mental tests, or agreement 
between school marks and mental tests would greatly strengthen 
the presumption that the tests had succeeded in discovering the 
pupil's mental level. 

Discovery of Agreement between Mental Tests, School 
Marks, and Vocational Ambition 
The cases of the high-school pupils, whose mental ratings and 
vocational ambitions are set forth in Table XII, are redistributed 
in Table XIII in accordance with standing in school subjects, 
intelligence tests, and rank of vocational ambition. For the pur- 
poses of the three-way distribution, vocational ambitions are 
ranked as follows: Rank I: higher professional and executive 



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48 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

positions; Rank II: business, semi-professional, higher clerical 
positions; Rank III: general clerical, skilled labor etc.; Rank IV: 
semi-skilled labor; Rank V: unskilled labor. 

Mental age equivalents for the Army Scale ratings were worked 
out by Dr. Samuel C. Kohs and the writer, and from them 
intelligence quotients (I. Q.'s) were computed. The mental 
level of a child is more nearly represented by the I. Q. than by 
the raw scores on an absolute point scale because the latter take 
no account of the chronological age. 

Sex differences in rank of vocational ambition are indicated 
in column 10. There are 189 boys, or 45.1 percent of the total 
number of boys, but only 86 girls, or 16.8 percent of the girls, 
who chose vocations of the first rank. The vocational ambitions 
of 33.4 percent of the boys and 46.3 percent of the girls are 
represented by Rank II, and those of 21.5 percent of the boys 
and 36.9 percent of the girls by Rank III. There were none of 
the 930 who chose vocations of less than Rank III. The most 
numerous choices of the boys were for the engineering profession 
and of the girls for stenography and teaching. 

How those whose ambitions come in the different ranks would 
probably measure up in mental ability to the demands of the 
occupations chosen can be estimated by reference to the nine 
possible combinations of I. Q. and school marks. Entries in 
column 1 show those who have I. Q.'s and school marks both 
below average. There are 51 pupils in this group. Seven of 
them have chosen occupations of Rank I, and 18 of Rank 11. 
Since school marks confirm indications of mental tests as to low 
mental level in these cases the success of these pupils in occupa- 
tions of Ranks I or II would be open to question. 

In column 7 there are 57 cases, 16 boys and 41 girls, having 
marks above average and I. Q.'s below average. Here is an indica- 
tion that the tests did not register the full ability of the pupils, or 
that they possess qualities of persistence and other attributes 
tending to supplement intelligence as factors in successful school 
work. 

Columns 2 and 3 indicate that there are many pupils whose 
intelligence is average or above average but who do poor school 
work. Teachers are apt to rate such pupils low in intelligence. 
The mental tests give the counselor an insight into their true 



Psychological Tests in Vocational Guidance 49 

ability and enable him to employ methods of waking them up 
through the discovery of the right life-career motive. 

The cases entered in columns 6 or 9 where the I. Q.'s are 
above average and school success is average or above average 
can be considered as satisfactory, so far as intelligence is con- 
cerned, for the occupations chosen. However, the counselor 
can be of great service to the pupils in these groups through his 
ability to give information as to the demand for workers, the 
opportunities for advancement, the qualifications as to health, 
temperament, training, etc., expected of those who enter the 
occupations selected for consideration. 

There is no purpose here to suggest that a counselor should 
always advise those who have superior ability to enter high 
ranking occupations. If a bright boy or girl would be more con- 
tented in an occupation ranking low on the rating scale there is 
no occasion to urge them to select another simply because it ranks 
higher in popular estimation. There is room for superior intel- 
ligence in every occupation, and it would be well for the country 
if young people of superior ability were encouraged to follow 
agricultural, mechanical, and industrial pursuits, in order that 
they might become leaders therein. The professions are over- 
crowded, but there is always room for young people with ideas 
and energy in the food producing and industrially creative 
occupations. 

Summary and Conclusions 

1. The use of psychological and trade tests in the selection of 
employees can be more easily shown to be effective, than can the 
use of such tests in vocational guidance. The employment 
manager can "play safe" by rejecting all but the most promising 
applicants, while the vocational counselor must needs endeavor 
to give sound ad\dce to all comers. 

2. Minute charting of abilities by means of psychological 
and trade tests is not practicable at the present time for the 
public school vocational counselor. There are far too many 
different occupations and the specific abilities of individual 
pupils are much too various to permit of accurate "pigeon- 
holing" according to manual, conceptual, and other types. 
Likewise a given combination of abilities might mean successful 
participation in any one of a wide range of occupations. 



50 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

3. The discovery of the levels of intelligence of individuals 
and of occupational groups may prove to be of great assistance 
to the high-school counselor. The data on army mental tests, 
arranged in Table XI, indicate that there are rather definitely 
marked occupational levels of intelligence. The norms already 
suggested would probably be confirmed by a compilation of all 
available data. 

4. Application of the Army Intelligence Scale to 930 high- 
school pupils and the distribution of the cases according to in- 
telligence rating and vocational ambitions is shown in Table 
XII. Illustration is also given of the way in which this knowledge 
might be applied to the vocational guidance of the group tested. 

5. Need of vocational guidance of high-school pupils is shown 
by the fact that the concentration of choices in the professional, 
business, and clerical occupations is out of all proportion to the 
opportunities in those lines as shown by the United States census. 
The demands for workers in agricultural, industrial, and mechani- 
cal pursuits should be emphasized by the counselor. 

6. The need for supplementary information to verify the find- 
ings of the intelligence tests is shown in Table XIII. The 930 
cases are distributed according to sex, school marks, vocational 
ambition, and intelligence. Where intelligence rating and school 
marks agree the presumption is that the intelligence level was 
approximated by the mental test. Where they do not agree it 
is a warning to make further inquiry into the matter. 

7. The employment of psychological tests as an aid in voca- 
tional guidance is in the early experimental stage, but sufficient 
progress has been made to justify their use in a negative way, i.e., 
as a means of discovering to the counselor the kinds of occupations 
that a given high-school pupil would probably better avoid. 
They are useful also as a means of satisfying a counselor that a 
given pupil has the mental ability to engage in the occupation 
which he has chosen, providing other necessary factors condition- 
ing success are present. In any case the counselor will do well to 
remember that he is dealing with probabilities and not with 
certainties. The mental tests, if conservatively employed, will 
increase the probability that the counselor will give really helpful 
advice. 



CHAPTER V 
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AND COLLEGE ENTRANCE 

Since the announcement by Columbia University that psy- 
chological tests had been adopted as an optional means of entrance 
to Columbia College for boys suitably recommended, there has 
been widespread experimentation with that method of testing 
fitness for college. Other universities, notably the Univeristy of 
Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, the University of Cali- 
fornia, and Leland Stanford University now employ psycholog- 
ical tests as one of the conditions precedent to the admission of 
students of maturity who have not had full high-school prepara- 
tion. A high score in a psychological examination is accepted as 
evidence of ability to undertake university work with profit. 

In pursuance of this policy toward "special" students a young 
man, a disabled soldier and trainee of the Federal Board for 
Vocational Education, who had never gone beyond the fifth 
grade, was admitted to Stanford University on the strength of 
his high rating in a psychological examination. He undertook 
fifteen hours of regular work, and at the end of his first quarter 
had earned twelve and a half hours of "B" and two and a half 
hours of "C" grades. This man without any formal college prep- 
aration is showing his ability to undertake and to profit by regular 
university courses. 

This case and other similar ones that have come to light since 
the policy was adopted of giving men a chance on the basis of 
superior ability as shown by psychological examinations, suggests 
the idea that every institution of higher learning should reserve 
at least 2 or 3 percent of its new registrations for men and women 
of this type. 

The standardization of mental tests that could be used by 
institutions adopting such a policy has been progressing rapidly 
within the past three years. Dr. E. L. Thorndike of Columbia 
University has developed and is perfecting his "Intelligence 
Examination for High School Graduates";^ and Dr. L. M. Terman 
of Stanford University has just published his mental test for high- 

* See Appendix, page 70. 

51 



52 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

school pupils. 2 The Otis Absolute Point Scale' and the Army 
Alpha Scale* have already been widely used for testing large 
groups of college and university students. 

Before abandoning the traditional entrance requirements 
college and university authorities will want to be assured that, 
as a means of predicting possible success in college work, psycho- 
logical tests have at least equal value with the record of the four 
years of preparatory work now required. The writer's contribu- 
tion to this discussion will consist of the presentation of the data 
regarding 93 young people who were given the Alpha Army Test 
in 1917-1918 while still in high school and who entered Stanford 
University after graduation from high school. 

In Table XIV the cases of these students are arranged in 
quartiles according to rank in intelligence quotients.^ Column 1 
gives this rank order; column 2, the intelHgence quotients; 
column 3, the high-school scholarship rating. (All high-school 
grades were given numerical values — 1 for "A," 2 for "B," etc. — 
and averaged.) Columns 4 to 9 inclusive indicate the quarter 
hours of university marks earned by each student while at 
Stanford. Column 10 shows the total number of hours taken; 
column 11, the number of honor points; and column 12, the 
scholarship rating in university work.^ The period of university 
work covered was that of the first three quarters (or that of the 
freshman year). 

Relation of Rank in Intelligence to Scholarship in College 

The sum.mary of the 23 cases falling in the first quarter indi- 
cates that the median intelligence quotient was 127; that the 
median high-school scholarship was 1.9 (or a trifle better than 
B); and that as to ratings at the university 47 percent of the A's 

^ See Appendix, page 69. 
^ See Appendix, page 69. 

* See Appendix, page 69. 

' All I. Q.'s are computed on the basis of the Kohs-Proctor mental age norms for 
Alpha test. See Appendix, page 67. 

* This scholarship rating is secured by dividing the total number of registered 
hours into the honor points earned. Three honor points are given for a grade of "A"; 
two for a grade of "B"; one for a "C"; none for "D" or "E." The highest possible 
rating (all "A's") would be 3.00; the lowest (all "D's" or "E's") would be 0.0. A 
rating of "1 .0" is average. 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 



53 



TABLE XIV. RELATION BETWEEN RANK ORDER IN PSYCHOLOGICAL 

EXAMINATION AND SCHOLARSHIP IN HIGH SCHOOL AND 

UNIVERSITY (work OF THE FIRST THREE QUARTERS) 



Rank 




H.S. 


Number of Hours Indicated 






Univer- 


According 


I.Q. 


Scho- 




Grades at University 




Total 


Honor 


sity 


to I. Q. 




lar- 
ships 














Hours 


Points 


ocnoisr- 


A 


B 


C 


D 


Cond. 


Fail. 


ship 
Ratingb 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


1 


138 


1.7 


5 


29 


11 


3 








48 


84 


1.75 


2 


136 


2.2 


23 


8 


9 











40 


94 


2.35 


3 


135 


1.8 


5 


30 


10 











45 


85 


1.89 


4 


134 


2.2 


8 


15 


12 


4 








39 


66 


1.69 


5 


133 


1.8 








29 


6 





3 


38 


29 


0.76 


6 


132 


1.6 


3 


13 


10 


15 








41 


45 


1.10 


7 


131 


1.0 


31 


19 














50 


131 


2.262 


8 


130 


1.3 


20 


10 














30 


80 


2.66 


9 


129 


1.2 


S3 


13 














46 


125 


2.71 


10 


128 


2.4 


5 


19 


15 


5 








44 


68 


1.54 


11 


128 


2.2 


5 


4 


16 


5 


5 


2 


37 


39 


1.05 


12 


127 


1.9 


15 


33 














48 


111 


2.31 


13 


127 


1.7 


11 


21 


14 











46 


89 


1.93 


14 


126 


1.3 


25 


11 


8 











44 


105 


2.40 


15 


126 


2.9 


1 


25 


17 





3 





46 


70 


1.52 


16 


125 


2.6 





9 


26 





7 


4 


46 


44 


0.95 


17 


125 


2.5 


7 


23 


8 


1 


5 





44 


75 


1.70 


18 


125 


1.9 


6 


8 


17 











31 


51 


1.66 


19 


125 


2.8 


5 


34 


5 











44 


88 


2.00 


- 20 


124 


2.9 


1 


20 


16 


5 








42 


59 


1.40 


21 


123 


1.4 


14 


16 


7 


8 








45 


81 


2.80 


22 


122 


1.5 


15 


18 


11 











44 


92 


2.09 


23 


122 


2.6 


24 


22 


3 











49 


119 


2.43 


Totals, F 


irst Qu< 


irtile 


262 


400 


244 


52 


20 


9 


987 


1830 


1.89C 


24 


122 


1.8 


5 


11 


19 


11 








46 


56 


1.22 


25 


121 


1.3 


17 


6 


2 











25 


65 


2.60 


26 


121 


2.2 


14 


22 


8 











44 


99 


2.25 


27 


120 


1.1 


28 


14 














42 


112 


2.57 


28 


120 


1.1 


6 


29 


5 


5 








45 


81 


1.80 


29 


120 


2.8 


2 


23 


17 





5 





47 


69 


1.47 


30 


120 


2.7 





15 


20 





5 


5 


45 


50 


1.10 


31 


119 


1.7 


5 


8 


14 


8 


5 


5 


45 


45 


1.00 


32 


118 


2.4 





15 


19 


4 


3 


1 


42 


49 


1.16 


33 


118 


1.0 


8 


35 


4 











47 


98 


2.08 



TABLE xrv (Continued) 



Rank 




H. S. 


Number of Hours Indicated 






Univer- 


According 


I.Q. 


Schol- 




Grades at University 




Total 


Honor 


sity 


to I. Q. 




ar- 












Hours 


Points 






















ship* 


A 


B 


C 


D 


Cond. 


FaU. 






Rating b 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


34 


118 


1.5 


12 


25 














37 


86 


2.32 


35 


117 


2.4 


8 


8 


29 


1 








46 


69 


1.50 


36 


117 


2.0 





25 


13 


5 








43 


63 


1.46 


37 


116 


2.1 





18 


22 











40 


58 


1.45 


38 


116 


2.1 





28 


11 


5 








44 


67 


1.52 


39 


116 


2.5 


5 











5 


5 


15 


15 


1.00 


40 


116 


1.7 


10 


21 


8 


3 








42 


80 


1.90 


41 


116 


2.4 


3 


12 


18 


10 





4 


47 


51 


1.08 


42 


115 


1.9 


20 


17 


7 











44 


101 


2.29 


43 


115 


2.0 





30 


11 











41 


71 


1.77 


44 


115 


3.0 





24 


12 


10 








46 


60 


1.30 


45 


115 


2.3 


5 


26 


14 











45 


81 


1.80 


46 


113 


2.2 


17 


21 


11 











49 


104 


2.12 


Totals, Sec 


ond Qu 


artile 


165 


433 


264 


62 


23 


20 


967 


1630 


1.52C 


47(jif«i,-fl„)d 


113 


2.7 


10 


7 
6 


23 


8 








48 


67 


1.40 


48 


113 


3.0 





15 








8 


29 


27 


0.93 


49 


112 


2.1 


6 


9 


24 


4 








43 


60 


1.40 


50 


112 


2.0 





6 


8 


10 


8 


12 


44 


20 


0.45 


51 


112 


2.6 





19 


16 


5 





5 


45 


54 


1.20 


52 


111 


3.2 


9 


18 


9 


10 








46 


72 


1.56 


53 


111 


3.0 





8 


27 


8 








43 


43 


1.00 


54 


111 


3.0 








2 








9 


11 


2 


0.18 


55 


110 


1.8 


10 


28 


5 











43 


91 


2.11 


56 


110 


2.8 


7 


11 


13 


10 


7 





48 


56 


1.16 


57 


110 


2.4 


3 


24 


19 


4 








50 


76 


1.53 


58 


110 


1.0 


16 


18 


8 











42 


92 


2.20 


59 


110 


2.3 


5 


13 


29 











47 


70 


1.49 


60 


110 


3.0 





9 


22 


12 





3 


46 


40 


0.87 


61 


110 


2.0 


7 


18 


10 











35 


67 


1.91 


62 


110 


3.1 





9 


19 


5 


8 





41 


37 


0.81 


63 


109 


2.2 





13 


10 


7 








30 


36 


1.20 


64 


109 


3.3 


2 





10 





4 





16 


16 


1.00 


65 


109 


3.0 





10 


1 


8 


5 


9 


33 


21 


0.63 


66 


108 


3.3 


3 


4 


16 


10 








33 


33 


1.00 


67 


108 


3.0 





15 


32 


3 








50 


62 


1.24 


68 


107 


3.0 





15 


8 


10 


3 





36 


38 


1.06 


69 


107 


3.0 





23 


10 


10 








43 


56 


1.30 


70 


107 


2.7 





10 


35 











45 


55 


1.22 


Totals, Third Qui 


irtile 


68 


286 


348 


116 


35 


46 


899 


1124 


1.20* 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 
TABLE XIV (Continued) 



55 



Rank 




I.Q. 


Number of Hours Indicated 






Univer- 


According 


I.Q. 


Scho- 


Grades at University 




Total 


Honor 


sity 


to I. Q. 




lar- 












Hours 


Points 


0^.lJ*Jlai* 


- 












ship 






ship 


A 


B 


C 


D 


Cond. 


Fail. 






Ratingb 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


P 


10 


11 


12 


71 


106 


2.2 





5 








13 





18 


10 


0.55 


72 


106 


2.6 








38 


3 





4 


45 


38 


0.84 


73 


106 


3.0 








5 


11 


2 


3 


21 


5 


0.24 


74 


106 


2.9 





9 


29 


5 








43 


47 


1.09 


75 


106 


2.2 


9 


17 


14 








3 


43 


75 


1.74 


76 


106 


2.5 


10 


15 


9 


7 








41 


69 


1.70 


77 


105 


2.2 


13 


31 


5 











49 


106 


2.16 


78 


105 


2.7 





5 


34 


5 








44 


44 


1.00 


79 


105 


3.0 





2 


16 


5 


5 


17 


45 


20 


0.44 


80 


105 


3.3 


10 


26 


7 











43 


89 


2.07 


81 


105 


3.3 








6 


8 








14 


6 


0.43 


82 


104 


2.6 





10 


5 


8 





7 


30 


25 


0.83 


83 


104 


3.0 





18 


13 


9 





4 


44 


49 


1.11 


84 


103 


3.0 


3 


24 


19 











46 


76 


1.65 


85 


102 


4.0 





6 


17 


5 





3 


31 


29 


0.93 


86 


100 


1.0 





12 


26 


5 








43 


50 


1.16 


87 


100 


4.0 





3 


19 


14 


1 


5 


42 


25 


0.59 


88 


100 


1.0 


7 


25 


4 


10 








36 


75 


2.09 


89 


96 


2.8 





13 


30 


,,'o 





3 


46 


56 


1.22 


90 


95 


3.6 





3 


18 


;9 








30 


24 


0.80 


91 


92 


2.9 


6 


10 


16 


i;8 


5 





45 


54 


1.20 


92 


90 


4.0 





10 


16 


15 





5 


46 


36 


0.78 


93 


82 


2.7 





3 











10 


13 


6 


0.46 


Totals, Fourth Quartile 


58 


247 


346 


117 


26 


64 


858 


1014 


1.186 


Grand Totals 


563 


1373 


1225 


355 


104 


139 


3759 


5665 





o 1 .0 is the highest and 4.0 the lowest high-school scholarshiprating. 
ft 3 . is the highest and the lowest university scholarship rating. 
e Median scholarship rating for quartile. 
d No. 47 is the median student according to intelligence quotients. 

but only 7 percent of the failures, belonging to the entire 93 
students, were allotted to the first quarter. In addition to this, 
33 percent of the honor points came to the students in this quar- 
ter, and their average scholarship rating in university courses 
was 1 . 89. 

The corresponding figures for the fourth quarter contrast 
with those of the first quarter. For example, only 10 percent of 



56 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



II 


1, 










1 


1 




dian 
iver- 
Scho 
ship 


0\ C^l O O lO o 


^ 


00 lO CN O t^ '^ 




^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 


•rH 


<n 




1 


1 




;rcent 
Honor 
oints 


<^0 0\ O t^ CS t^ 


>-< 


rO C^l CM i-H 'O (T) 




Cu ^ Ph 




1 


1 




"U O >-i 


\0 vO •^ «S P<l vO 


CM 


^^1 


«N eS CM CM lO •* 




(Ih o W 






1 








r^ •<* ro v: 


> ^ 


^ 0\ 


o 




c3 


^ PO -"d 


1 C^ 


i t^ 






Ph 










w 












o 


(3 
O 


Ov CN ■* "■ 


) ■^ 


< CN 


o 


w 


^H CN f^ Cv 


1 "i 


< lO 




% 










P4 






















o 












oi 




lO t~. r/5 c 


) CN 


I *o 


CM 


H 


Q 


•t-H th ro r<" 


> f 


) o 




"^ • 












I-) 












< 




o CM 00 a 


CV 


VO 


CM 


H^ 


U 


CM CN CS CV 


^ 


ID 














& 












o ■ 


























0< CM »-l r- 




00 


^-i 


n 


cs ro CM T- 


s 


CO 




« 












u 












^ 
















r~ O CM C 


m: 


CN 


CM 




< 


•* CM .^ ■^ 


t^ 


cs 




S . b 










.2 cA) i2 a 


0\ ^^ O OC 


c 


0^ 


t-» 


T3 . o :s 


»-i CM rO fS 


es 


CM 


CM 


S 










•Icy 


t^ t^ o ■^ 


CN 


t^ 


fO 


f^ -H ^ c 


Cv 


o 


*-H 


4J 










S"^ 
























cg° 


« 














t) 


rg 












> 


in 


IH 












1— 1 


o 


c3 










t— 






3 










t— I 


. 


a 


C 










73 

c 


g 






H-( HH >^ 


CI 


1— 1 


V 






1— 1 


;^ 




1 






M 


HH 


M 


M 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 



57 



the A's awarded to the 93 students were earned by the 23 students 
whose intelligence quotients were in the lowest quarter. On the 
other hand, 46 percent of all the failures occurred among these 
students. The general condition with respect to university marks 
is shown in Figure 5. Curve I is for the students whose I. Q.'s 
were in the first or highest quarter; curve II is for those whose 
I. Q.'s were in the second quarter; and so on. The significant 

Pepcent 
50 



40 



30 



20 



lO 




LEGEND 

I First Quartile lO's 122-138 

II Second Quaptile IO's 1 1 3-122 

IIIThiro Ouartile rQ'sl07-ll3 

IVFourthQuaPTILEIOs 82-107 



MAPKS a B C D Cond. Fail 

FiGupE ^ Percent of each Universitu Mark 
received by Quartiles I-IV Data from 
Table XV 



58 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

fact to be observed is that curves I and II tend strongly to slope 
downward and to the right, while curves III and IV slope upward. 
Indeed, the pairs of curves form a rude X. This X is obscured 
by two perfectly explainable causes. The first is the tendency 
to "condition" capable students who have technically failed — 
generally because of some unusual circumstance. This tendency 
causes curves I and II to show an irregular rise at the point 
representing "conditions." The second cause which makes the 
curves irregular also has to do with the grade of "conditioned." 
Curve IV drops sharply at this point. Instructors having dull 
students whose work has not been clearly of passing quality tend 
to withhold the "condition" and to fail them without reprieve. 
With these rather easily explainable limitations, Figure 5 makes 
clear the fact that the high-school students who received the better 
half of the intelligence ratings secured many high marks in the 
university and few low ones, and that the exact reverse was true 
with respect to the high-school students who receive the lower 
half of the intelligence ratings. 

The reader's attention is also directed to the contrast between 
the figures given in Table XV for the cases above the median 
(quartiles I and II combined) and the figures for the cases below 
the median (quartiles III and IV combined). From every view- 
point afforded by Table XV and Figure 5 it appears that the 
Stanford students with I. Q.'s of 113 to 138 did work in the uni- 
versity that was distinctly superior to the work done by those 
whose I. Q.'s ranged from 113 down to 82. 

The "Critical Score," or Intelligence Level Below Which 
Success in College is Problematical 

The median I. Q. of first-year high-school pupils has been 
shown to approximate 105, that of high-school graduates 111, 
and that of those going on to college 116.^ Table XIV shows the 
median I. Q. of the 93 university students therein tabulated to be 
113. For the purposes of this discussion it will be convenient 
to divide the I. Q. range into five sections, as follows: I, over 
125, superior; II, 110-124, above average; III, 95-109, average; 
IV, 80-94, below average; V, below 80, inferior or defective. 

^ Chapter II, p. 22. 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 59 

If the median I. Q, of college freshmen is found to lie between 
110 and 116, we would expect, a priori, to find that those who 
tested below 110 would furnish the larger proportion of failures. 
In Table XIV there are 31 cases where the I. Q. falls below 110. 
These 31 cases (one-third of the total number) furnish 52 percent 
of the total number of hours of failure, and 63 . 1 percent of the 
total number having scholarship ratings below 1 . 00, or average. 
This showing would seem to indicate that in order to do average 
or better work in college it is necessary to have "better-than- 
average" intelligence, i.e., an I. Q. of 110 or above. 

It should also be remembered that the data gathered in Table 
XIV represent only the first three quarters of university work, 
corresponding to the freshman year. If the same process of 
selection takes place in college that we have shown to take place 
in high school, we should expect the median I. Q. of college 
graduates to be 120 or over. This would mean that many of 
those having just average intelligence, who are able to do the 
work of the freshman year with a fair degree of success would be 
likely to be eliminated before the senior year in college. That 
such would be the case seems to be a fair inference from the 
scholarship records of those whose I. Q.'s fell below 110 in Table 
XIV. Those having just average intelligence would occupy the 
same relative place, so far as elimination from college is concerned, 
as those having below-average intelligence occupy in the high 
school.^ The probability is strong that from 60 to 80 percent of 
them will be eliminated during the college course. 

College Entrance by High-School Marks or Mental Tests? 

From the data presented in Table XIV there appears to be a 
close relation between rank in mental tests and scholarship ratings 
in university work. A point that needs further discussion is 
whether mental tests would be as reliable a basis for the selection 
of college students as the record of four years in high school. Or, 
to state the problem differently, could the mental tests be safely 
substituted for the high-school scholarship record as a basis for 
admission to college? 

Tables XVI and XVII show respectively the correlations 
between intelligence quotients and university scholarship ratings, 

8 See Tables VIA and VIB, p. 20. 



60 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



and between high-school and university scholarship ratings. It 
should be remembered that the high-school marks represent 
ratings based on all marks received during four years of high 
school; that the university ratings are based on the first three 
quarters of university work; that the mental tests were given in 
1916-1917, while the students were still in high school; and that 
only one group mental test, the Army Alpha, was employed. 

TABLE XVI. CORRELATION BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENTS OF 
93 STANFORD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND THEIR UNIVER- 
SITY SCHOLARSHIP RATINGS 



I. Q.'s by 

Alpha 
1916-1917 


University Scholarship Ratings 


Totals 


0.00 
0.24 


0.25 
0.49 


0.50 
0.74 


0.75 
0.99 


1.00 
1.24 


1.25 
1.49 


1.50 
1.74 


1.75 
1.99 


2.00 
2.24 


2.25 
2.49 


2.50 
2.74 


2.75 
2.99 


135-139 
















2 




1 






3 


130-134 








1 

1 


1 

1 
2 
4 


2 
3 


1 

4 

2 


2 

1 
2 


1 


5 


125-129 








1 
1 
3 


1 

1 
1 


2 
2 
2 


11 


120-124 








11 


115-119 










15 


110-114 


1 


1 




3 


3 


3 


2 


1 


3 








17 












105-109 


1 


2 


2 

1 


1 
2 
1 
1 


8 
2 
1 

1 


1 


2 

1 




2 
1 








19 


100-104 








7 


95-99 












2 


90-94 






















2 


85-90 

























80-84 




1 






















1 


























Totals 


2 


4 


3 


10 


23 


9 


12 


8 


9 


7 


5 


1 


93 



Median L Q. group, 110-114. 
Median scholarship rating, 1 .25-1 .49. 
Pearson coefficient of correlation, 0.495. 
Probable error, 0.0526. 

In Table XVI there are ten cases where the I. Q. is above the 
group median, "110-114," and where the scholarship rating is 
below the group median, "1 .25-1 .49," but only two of the cases 
fall below "1 .00," which stands for average scholarship. 

Below the I. Q. group median there are six cases which show a 
scholarship rating above the scholarship rating median, but none 
of these have I. Q.'s below 100. 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 



61 



TABLE XVII. 


CORRELATION BETWEEN THE HIGH-SCHOOL AND UNI- 
VERSITY SCHOLARSHIP RATINGS 


High 
School 
Scholar- 
ship 


University Scholarship Ratings 




0.00 
0.24 


0.25 
0.49 


0.50 
0.74 


0.75 
0.99 


1.00 
1.24 


1.25 
1.49 


1.50 
1.74 


1.75 
1.99 


2.00 
2.24 


2.25 
2.49 


2.50 
2.74 


2.75 
2.99 


Totals 


1 00-1.24 










1 






1 


3 


1 
1 
2 
2 


2 
3 


1 


7 


1.25-1 49 














5 


1 50-1.74 










2 
1 

2 






2 
2 
2 


1 
1 
1 


6 


1 75-1 99 








1 


3 


1 

3 






8 


2 00-2 24 




1 


1 






15 










2.25-2.49 










2 


1 


3 


1 


1 








8 


2.50-2.74 








3 


4 
5 
4 
2 


3 
2 


2 
1 
2 






1 






10 


2 75-2 99 


2 


1 
2 






1 






11 


3 00^3 24 


1 


3 








16 


3 25-3 49 




1 








3 


3 50-3 74 








1 
2 














1 


3 75-4 00 






1 


















3 


























Totals 


2 


4 


3 


10 


23 


9 


12 


8 


9 


7 


5 


1 


93 



Median university scholarship-rating group, 1 . 2S-1 .49 
Median high-school scholarship-rating group, 2.25-2.49. 
Pearson coefficient of correlation, 0.6 IS. 
Probable error, 0.0445. 

In Table XVII there are nine cases of students above the 
median group in high-school scholarship and below the median 
group in university scholarship. Three are below "1.00" in 
university ratings. On the other hand, there are eight who fall 
below the median in high-school scholarship and who stand above 
the median in university scholarship. But the general agreement 
between high-school grades and university work is sufficient to 
give the relatively high correlation of . 615. 

In discussing an ideal examination of the intelligence of candi- 
dates for college entrance, Dr. E. L. Thorndike^ says that the 
score should correlate as closely as possible with future achieve- 
ment in college, and further : 

This maximum correlation will not be 1.00, since achievement in 
college is due in part to health, to freedom from personal worries, and to 

» Thorndike, E. L. "Intelligence examinations for college entrants," Journal of 
Educalional Research, 1 :329 May, 1920. 



62 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

various moral qualities as well as to intellect. . . . Within the restricted 
range of those who complete a high-school course and actually become candi- 
dates, we may expect as a maximum . 55 to . 65 possibly more. A correla- 
tion above . 50 is probably an improvement over the attainment of standard 
systems of accrediting high schools or of entrance to college by examination 
in school subjects. 

In Tables XVI and XVII the correlations between intelligence 
quotients and university scholarship, and between high-school 
scholarship and university scholarship were 0.495, P. E. 0.0526, 
and 0.615, P. E. 0.0445, respectively. That is, the correlation 
between high-school scholarship and university scholarship is 
higher by 12 points than the correlation between intelligence 
quotients and university achievement. 

This difference in correlation in favor of the high-school 
scholarship might seem to indicate that the intelligence test is 
not as reliable a criterion as the four-year high-school record of 
scholarship in determining fitness to do college work. Such a 
conclusion would not necessarily follow. Account must be taken 
of the fact that the intelligence test given in the case of the 93 
students under consideration was given three years prior to the 
collection of data concerning their college work; that it was a 
group test, not specifically designed for college students; and that 
no supplementary tests were given which might have corrected 
or compensated for errors in rating chargeable to the admitted 
shortcomings of the Alpha Scale. Consequently Table XIV and 
the correlation 0.495 represent the accuracy with which the 
person giving the Alpha test to the pupils of the high schools 
near Stanford University in 1917-1918 could have predicted 
their probable high-school and university careers. He would 
have been able to pick the 50 percent, who would almost surely 
succeed, and the 50 percent from among whose numbers the 
great majority of the failures and poor students would be found. 

Furthermore, if supplementary group and individual mental 
tests had been given to these high-school pupils, much more 
reliable mental ratings would have resulted and the correlation 
between mental level and university work would have been con- 
siderably higher. In support of this contention two cases may be 
cited, i.e., those ranking 77 and 80 in Table XIV. No. 80 had a 
high-school scholarship rating of 3 . 3, having earned an average of 



Psychological Tests and College Entrance 63 

"C + " in all high-school subjects. Her intelligence quotient on 
Alpha was 105, which is 8 points below the median for the group. 
When she was in the eighth grade she was given a Stanford-Binet 
examination and earned an I. Q. of 120, which corresponds more 
closely than the Alpha I. Q, entered in Table XIV with her 
university scholarship rating of 2.07. No. 77 had a high-school 
scholarship rating of 2.2, or about "B." His Alpha I. Q. was 
105, but a Stanford-Binet examination taken a year earlier gave 
him an I. Q. of 115. His university scholarship rating was 2.16. 

If the Stanford-Binet I. Q.'s of these two students alone had 
been used in Table XIV instead of the Alpha I. Q.'s, the median 
I. Q. for the entire group would have been 115 instead of 113; and 
the percents of "A" grades, honor points, and high scholarship 
ratings coming in the upper, or above-the-median group, would 
have been considerably higher. Likewise, if these two cases 
had been entered in Table XVI on the basis of the Binet I. Q., 
the correlation would have been approximately 5 points higher, 
or about 0.549. 

It would probably be impracticable to attempt to substitute 
mental examinations entirely for records of attainment in high 
school as a basis for determining admission to college. But on 
account of the varying standards of marking that prevail in high 
schools it is impossible to accept an "A" mark given by one 
school as the equivalent of an "A" mark given by another school. 
Requiring all applicants for entrance to college to take mental 
tests would give to the registrar and committee on credentials an 
objective standard of judgment which would enable them to 
estimate with greater accuracy the abilities of those seeking admis- 
sion to institutions of higher learning. Especially would this be 
true in institutions like Stanford where the number who may 
attend is limited, and where the number of applicants greatly 
exceeds the possible number of entrants. 

Another advantage of the mental test as a criterion for college 
entrance is that it makes possible the extension of university 
privileges to persons of maturity who have not had high-school 
training. The case of the man having fifth-grade education, but 
sufl&cient intelligence and experience of life to profit by and suc- 
ceed above the average in university work, is only one of many 
that might be discovered if the universities adopted the policy of 



64 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

reserving from 1 to 5 percent of their registrations for cases of this 
kind. Too many mental diamonds, that might otherwise be dis- 
covered and polished, now remain in the rough on account of the 
formal, inelastic entrance requirements of our colleges and univer- 
sities. Mental tests will minister to a genuine educational need if 
they help to open the doors of our higher institutions to men and 
women of marked ability, regardless of their formal academic 
preparation. 

Summary and Conclusions 

1. The ability to attain a high score on an intelligence test 
like the Army Alpha is presumptive evidence of ability to do 
college work successfully. This is shown in Table XIV by the 
proportion of "A" marks, honor points, and above-average 
scholarship ratings earned by the above-the-median group, and 
by the large proportion of "D's," conditions, failures, and below- 
average scholarship ratings earned by the below-the-median 
group. 

2. It is possible to suggest a "critical score" or intelligence 
quotient below which success in college work, or ultimate gradua- 
tion from college, would be open to question. Since the median 
I. Q. for college freshmen appears to lie between 110 and 116, 
and since the highest percent of failures, poor scholarship ratings, 
and other evidences of lack of ability to do college work success- 
fully are found in the below-the-median group there is good 
reason to predict that a majority of the eliminations from college 
will come from those with I. Q.'s below the median for college 
freshmen. 

3. "While mental tests may not supplant "recommended" 
high-school units as a basis for college entrance, it is safe to say 
that such tests will soon be so well standardized as to become a 
generally accepted means of making final selection from among 
those seeking to enter college. Particular value should attach 
to the use of mental tests as a means of admitting special students 
to the opportunities and privileges of a university course. 



APPENDIX 

I. The Kohs-Proctor Mental Age Norms for the Army 

Alpha Scale 

During the year 1917-1918 the Army Alpha Scale was given 
to several thousand California school children. The children 
tested were drawn from all types of communities and represented 
every variety of social status. The high-school pupils, whose 
scores, school marks, etc., have been discussed in the preceding 
chapters were among this number. 

In dealing with adults, an absolute point scale with the total 
scores grouped into five or seven sections will give reasonably 
accurate impressions as to mental level. But in the case of chil- 
dren, most of whom are below sixteen years of age, it is desirable 
to use the intelligence quotients, or ratio between mental age and 
chronological age. In order to assign I. Q.'s to the public school 
pupils who had been examined with the Army Alpha it was neces- 
sary to discover mental age norms corresponding to given scores 
earned on the Alpha Scale. 

The writer collaborated with Dr. Samuel Kohs in working 
out norms that could be employed tentatively in computing corre- 
lations between school work, teachers' estimates of ability, and 
intelligence quotients. 

The first step was to find the curve of distribution of scores 
in the Alpha Test by chronological age groups. The groups covered 
six months of chronological age, i.e., from 9 years, no months to 
9 years, 5 months in one group, and from 9 years, 6 months to 
9 years, 1 1 months in another group, etc. A curve for the median 
scores made by these chronological age groups was plotted. 

It was found that about seven hundred of the children who 
had taken the Alpha Scale had at one time or another been given 
the Stanford-Binet individual test. The Alpha scores made by 
these children were distributed by mental age groups and a curve 
plotted of the median scores by six-months mental age groups. 
The two curves were found to correspond quite closely. There 
was a variation of from twelve to twenty points on the absolute 

65 



66 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

scale to cover a mental age or chronological age year. For the 
years where there were at least 100 cases in each six-months 
chronological age group the number of points on the scale neces- 
sary to cover a mental age year varied only from 13 to 17. 

It was found that by allowing 15 points on the Alpha Scale 
for each mental age year, and starting with "0" score on Alpha as 
equivalent to a mental age of 9 years months, a correlation of 
over 0.90 between Stanford-Binet I. Q.'s and Alpha I. Q.'s was 
obtained. 

Table XVIII gives the corresponding mental age norms 
according to the Kohs-Proctor results and the results obtained 
by the Division of Psychology, Surgeon General's Office of the 
Army. Figure 6 is a graphic representation of the two sets of 
norms. 

The Army psychology norms were worked out on the basis of 
Stanford-Binet and performance tests given to army recruits 
who had also taken the Alpha Scale. Because the highest mental 
age attainable on the Stanford-Binet is 19 years, 6 months, the 
curve for these norms begins to be more and more depressed as 
mental age 19 — 6 is approximated. Up to age 18 — the Army 
psychology mental ages approximate one year higher for a given 
score on Alpha than the Kohs-Proctor mental ages. The curves 
cross at age 18 — and thereafter the Kohs-Proctor norms show a 
higher mental age for a given Alpha score than do the Army 
psychology norms. 

In Figure 6 the Kohs-Proctor norms conform to a straight 
line, because when it was found that 15 points on the Alpha 
Scale corresponded most nearly to a mental age year (the "cut 
and try" method of arriving at this approximation being em- 
ployed) the "zero" point, or point below which the median score 
of the children was "zero" was taken as the starting point. This 
was found to be 9 years, months. From this point ascending 
twelve points on the perpendicular for every fifteen points on the 
horizontal axis, the line was drawn. 

These norms have been applied to the Alpha scores of over 
2,000 high-school pupils and to many grade children. About 40 
percent of these pupils have been given the Stanford-Binet; and 
the correlations obtained between Binet I. Q.'s and Alpha I. Q.'s 
range from 0.80 to 0.92. 



TABLE XVIII. MENTAL-AGE EQUIVALENTS OF ALPHA SCORES, 

ACCORDING TO KOHS-PROCTOR AND ARMY PSYCHOLOGY 

NORMS 



Army 
Ratings 


Alpha 
Scores 


Mental Ages According to 


Kohs-Proctor 


Army Psychology 






Norms 


Norms 


D- 





9—0 


9—0 




5 


9-4 


9—6 




10 


9—8 


10—0 


D 


15 


10—0 


10—6 




20 


10-4 


11—0 


C- 


25 


10—8 


11—6 




30 


11—0 


12—0 




35 


ll^i 


12—3 




40 


11—8 


12—6 


C 


45 


12—0 


13—0 




50 


12-4 


13—3 




55 


12—8 


13—6 




60 


13—0 


14—0 




65 


13—4 


14—3 




70 


13—8 


14—6 


c+ 


75 


14—0 


15—0 




80 


14-^ 


15—3 




85 


l4r-8 


15—6 




90 


15—0 


16—0 




95 


15— i 


16—3 




100 


15—8 


16—6 


B 


105 


16—0 


16—9 




110 


16—4 


17—0 




lis 


16—8 


17-2 




120 


17—0 


17— i 




125 


17—1 


17—6 




130 


17—8 


17—9 


A 


135 


18-0 


18—0 




140 


18-4 


18—3 




145 


18—8 


18—6 




150 


19—0 


18—8 




155 


19—4 


18—10 




160 


19—8 


19—0 




165 


20—0 


19—2 




170 


20— i 


19—1 




175 


20—8 


19—6 




180 


21—0 


19—8 




185 


21-4 


20—0 




190 


21—8 


20—4 




195 


22—0 


20—6 




200 


22—4 


20—8 




205 


22—8 


20-10 




210 


23—0 


21-0 



68 



Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 



165 180 195 210 




Kbhs-Proctor Noma 



• • • • • '>^» • >•* Division of Psychology Noma, 

FIGURE 6. SHOWING KOHS-PROCTOR AND DIVISION OF PSYCHOLOGY, 

SURGEON general's OFFICE, U. S. A., MENTAL AGE 

NORMS FOR ALPHA SCALE 



II. Mental Tests Available for the Examination of High- 
School Pupils 

1. The Stanford-Binet. — This is the Stanford Revision of the 
Binet-Simon Scale. It makes possible measurement of mentality 



Appendix 69 

up to 19 years, 6 months, and on that account is better adapted to 
the testing of high-school pupils than any other revision of the 
Binet Scale that has been published. Record booklets, test- 
materials, score cards, etc., as well as Dr. Terman's book, The 
Measurement of Intelligence, which should be mastered by any one 
who undertakes to give the Stanford-Revision, can be secured 
from Houghton MifSin Co., Boston. 

2. The Alpha Group Test, Army Scale. — This was the group 
test developed by the Division of Psychology, Surgeon General's 
Office, U. S. Army and employed in the examination of nearly 
two million men. It consists of eight separate tests and has a 
total possible score of 212 points. It can be given to several 
hundred persons at once, requires about 45 minutes, and can be 
scored mechanically by trained clerical workers. Examiners' 
guides, test booklets, etc., can be had in quantity from the Bureau 
of Standards and Measurements, State Normal School, Emporia, 
Kansas. 

3. The Terman Group Test of Mental Ability. — This test has 
been developed and standardized by Dr. Lewis M. Terman, 
Professor of Educational Psychology, Stanford University, joint 
author of the National Intelligence Tests and of the Army Tests ; 
also author of the Stanford-Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale 
and books on the measurement of intelligence. This is the only 
test yet published which is especially adapted for pupils of high- 
school grade. It may also be used successfully in grades six, 
seven, and eight, and in the first year in college. The test is issued 
in two separate forms, Form A and Form B, each of which contains 
185 problems or questions. Manual of Directions gives full infor- 
mation for giving and scoring the tests. Sold in packages of 25, 
including Manual of Directions and Scoring Key, by the World 
Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York. 

4. The Otis Advanced Group Intelligence Scale. The Otis tests 
were among the first comprehensive group tests to be published 
before the Army Alpha Tests were released for general use. Mr. 
Otis had done more than almost any other psychologist in the 
development of group tests at the time of the organization of the 
Division of Psychology, U. S. Army. Many of the tests which 
he had already perfected were adopted as part of the Army group 
examinations a and b and Alpha. The Otis tests consist of ten 



70 Psychological Tests in Educational and Vocational Guidance 

well-selected tests arranged in booklet form, and published, with 
Manual of Directions, instructions for scoring etc., by the World 
Book Company, Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York. These tests 
are also put up in packages of 25. 

5. Thorndike's College Entrance Test. The original tests of 
the series of college entrance tests now being developed by Dr. 
Thorndike consisted of two forms. Form A and Form Al. Form 
A was made up of a series of 13 tests, the first ten of which were 
very similar to the 10 tests of the first Army Scale, Examinations 
a and h, with a "True-False," a "Memory" for geometrical forms, 
designs and numbers, and a "Logical Reasoning" test in addition. 
Form Al consists of nine tests, all involving a knowledge of 
literature, history, science, mathematics, etc., that every high 
school graduate is presumed to have. It is Dr. Thorndike's 
purpose to develop new tests or series of tests often enough to 
prevent coaching on the specific items. High correlations between 
the intelligence scores earned on the Thorndike College Entrance 
Tests and subsequent work in colleges and universities have al- 
ready been found. These tests are published by the Bureau of 
Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 
N. Y. 

Final Word 

Any one undertaking to apply group mental tests to high- 
school pupils should first familiarize himself with the tests to be 
given, the procedure as outlined and standardized by the author 
or authors of the tests, the methods of scoring and interpreting 
results. If possible, two different tests, such as the Alpha and 
Terman Group tests should be given and the results compared, or 
the scores equalized in some manner. Results obtained should be 
considered as tentative and not absolute. Every effort should 
be made to determine the validity of the tests employed and 
to discover the true mental level of each person examined. 

Applied by trained examiners, scored by expert assistants, 
verified by all available means and considered as reasonably 
reliable approximations of the mental levels of the persons 
examined, individual and group mental tests will be found to be 
of invaluable assistance to secondary teachers in the educational 
and vocational guidance of high-school pupils. 



I 



